Does Ecuador have the death penalty?

[Doc]

Some 30 fishermen caught with 357 dead sharks aboard their rundown vessel inside Galapagos National Park now face criminal charges, park officials said.

A patrol by park rangers and an Ecuador navy ship detained the vessel Monday night as it fished 20 miles inside the Galapagos Marine Reserve, the park said in a statement.

Shark fishing, as well as any commercial-scale fishing, is illegal inside the park and its marine reserve.
John Bruno, a University of North Carolina marine biologist teaching at the Galapagos Science Center, wrote on his blog that the park had declared it the largest shark seizure in its history.

"As sad as it is," he wrote, "I am really encouraged that the park now has the capacity to detect and apprehend illegal fishers in the marine reserve."

The species found were: 286 bigeye thresher, 22 blue sharks, 40 Galapagos sharks, 6 hammerhead sharks, 2 tiger sharks, and 1 mako shark.
Illegal shark fishing in Ecuador helps feed a demand for shark fin soup in Asia. The practice has put pressure on many shark species, some of which have become endangered or threatened with extinction.

Illegal shark finning in the Galapagos took off in the late 1990s when the local sea cucumber fishery collapsed.

The Galapagos, an island chain made famous by Charles Darwin and his "Origin of Species," was declared a U.N. World Heritage site in 1979.

 

[koozemani]

No death penalty. It doesn't fit the crime. Do to the fishermen what they would do to the sharks. Fin them and throw them back!!

 

[Mossman]

No, Ecuador doesn't not have the death penalty. These guys will get the equivalent of a traffic ticket. Likely the fins will still be sold to the Chinese since they're way too valuable for a corrupt Latin-American administrator to simply destroy them. At least in this case, the sharks weren't finned, so the meat can still be eaten.

"The Galapagos National Park Service (GNPS) is responsible for patrolling and monitoring the islands, but they are poorly funded and have a small fleet to chase down the criminals. They are struggling to control and stop the poaching. The administrative penalties that the criminals receive are very low, especially when compared with the going rates for shark fins and other poached items, which means the risk of being caught is often considered worth it. So, despite all the national and international regulations and commercial fishing bans, there are ongoing violations by local Ecuadorian fishing boats, foreign vessels and independent operators. According to the Sea Shepherd, ''the Galapagos is our line in the sand. If humanity cannot protect such a unique and diverse ecosystem, we will not be able to protect any ecosystem''.
"Legislation in Ecuador now allows the opportunity to create special judiciaries to address crimes against nature. This is a very unique judicial body as it recognises the rights of nature. The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, along with World Wildlife Fund, Conservation International and GNPS, are promoting the need to create a Specialised Judiciary on Rights for Nature in the Galapagos. If it goes ahead, this will be a world first for protecting nature against ecological criminals.

"No longer would small administrative penalties be charged to poachers caught red-handed, instead they would face criminal prosecution as well as possible prison sentences. It is hoped that this would provide a much stronger deterrent to the poachers and illegal fishermen. The final decision is now resting with the Judicial Council of Ecuador."

Sea Shepherd steps up the fight against poachers in the Galapagos Islands | Conservation | The Earth Times

I won't hold my breath.

 

[DiveTheGalapagos]

Said to me the Manabi (Manta, Puerto Lopez, etc on the coast of Ecuador which is where the boat was from) fishermen have pretty much decimated the coastal sharks. Had a friend telling me about the baby hammerheads lining the Puerto Lopez beach last week. Fins are sold by weight, so if the typical dead adults you normally see on the beach there are absent, the pickins are slim. Rights of nature...what a joke. The same president is the one who made killing sharks legal along the Ecuador coast. He knows his constituency and it's not an educated lot. He's a brilliant politician who has solidified his power base remarkably. But it was him who changed the law so that sharks as 'by catch' are legal. Figured that's why the ones caught in Galapagos didn't fin on the spot. They could legally take them back as long as it was the full body. Finning could come later.

 

[laurenceh]

see this video re. shark fishermen based out of puerto lopez on the mainland
‪Requiem for the Sharks of Ecuador‬‏ - YouTube