Will Galapagos liveaboard diving become more and more restrictive?

[j yaeger]

...turtles are tooooooo easy!!!!!

 

[DiveTheGalapagos]

I'm with you baitballer. My argument is that without divers at those sites, the fishermen would have a free for all because, in essence, they are only patrolled by divers. If the divers weren't there, heaven help the shark population. Those in Galapagos for decades will tell you the populations have diminished at Darwin and Wolf, but nothing will make me believe this is due to divers. That is due to fishermen, imho. I have been on small boats and taken on fishing boats out there before. I took photos. I went to cut their buoys which they pulled before I could get there. Drove them a distance offshore, but they were just waiting for us to leave. I refused to leave the site after all divers ascended. That particular day, fortunately another dive boat came along, very rare where we were. Only then did the fishermen give up and leave. And what I did would never happen if I were a local for reasons I cited above. And I don't mind, in this situation, being perceived as a gringa loca. I think divers are the best thing that has happened for the shark populations at Darwin and Wolf. The boat that serves as a permanent ranger station at Wolf has been in dry dock more than at Wolf in the last couple of years. As interesting as I find the information on Migramar.org and as much as I understand the intent is to expand the Marine Reserve zone, sometimes I wonder if it just guides fishermen to where they can fin in international waters.

And ps Lwang...yes Darwin is pretty small, so while you may not see other divers, you will hear the guide's noisemaker in the water upon occasion. So there you are looking all around trying to figure out where the sound is coming from (and what you're not seeing). I also remember at Cabo Marshall (which in theory is now limited to 1 boat per day) being in the school of salemas (so many you can only see a diver's bubbles above, but not the diver inside the school) having about 6 divers all of a sudden drop on top of me. That was a problem. Wolf has numerous sites so could accommodate more, but Wolf also has more coral, something it seems even the most advanced divers manage to forget exists. I don't think I've ever been up there when someone wasn't kneeling in coral or grabbing it or stationary with their fins laying in it. Kinda like Anderson Cooper on 60 Minutes at Jardines de la Reina in Cuba. So you either continually cringe inside or become a nice version of the coral police.

 

[DazedAndConfuzed]

so much misinfomation on shark fins. First of all, it is not for anyone's pecker, it is just a rarely eaten item from imperial china's times that was eaten beacause it is a delicacy that is of extreme rarity. It was not eaten at all during the socialist period but with Deng's sellout to socialism thus with the western multinational corps setting up sweatshops in china, the few sweatshop owners and/or party insiders that profited from it wanted to flaunt off their wealth, thus creating bigger and bigger demand from the merely made it class that also wants to say that they have made it. Second of all, it is not tasteless, it has a ever so slight taste and a unique texture, which I don't know if it is a thing that one can't live without. But its almost the same thing with those giant scallops, it has almost no taste on its own but people pay a fortune for it.

On top of that, tuna are also top predators that serves the same function as sharks. bluefin is a species that is on the verge of extinction and there is absolutely no outrage or even the slightest pressure on japan or the sushi eaters to stop eating it into extinction. In fact, japan is hoarding tons of those fish in long term storage for the day they are extinct. In fact, industrial fishing is wiping out pretty much the whole fish stock in the ocean, and almost all goes to feed the western world's mouth, but since we can't point the finger at anyone else, we don't think it is a problem.

 

[DiveTheGalapagos]

I think the aphrodisiac he was referring to are sea lion penises. There is outrage over everything commerical fishermen driven so hugely by the Asian market are doing their best to drive to extinction as soon as possible. The Asian demand for sea cucumbers created an insane situation in Galapagos for awhile, but that is now mostly under control. There was again a sea cucumber season for fishermen in 2011 for the first time in many years. In the days of yore, artisanal fishermen provided those Asian 'delicacies'. Today, commercial fishermen kill more in a day than the artisanal fishermen could in six months or a year, thus the real problem.

Where is the misinformation on shark fins? If shark fin soup is so rarely eaten, why is it on so many menus? Seems to be in every 4 star hotel restaurant now. It perhaps used to be rare in the days of yore, but they're long gone. I personally boycott any health food store that sells shark cartilage and pay attention to any cosmetic companies using squalene, etc and do not buy anything of that brand. I'm not alone. There's a reason some cosmetic giants no longer use shark products in their cosmetics. There is only one way to end this and that is to end the demand which can only be done by not buying from those who abuse. Only money speaks anywhere anymore unfortunately.

And ps...no one needed your description of the taste. You might as well be discussing how a human baby's thigh tastes as far as I'm concerned. Of course anyone can live without it as billions who aren't Asian do. Sorry to pick on Asians, but if it were being eaten daily in Scotland and they were driving the demand, I'd pick on Scots.

 

[DazedAndConfuzed]

the aphrodisiac was referring to fins, which, along with other animal organs has no scientific validity.

The discussion of taste is to counter someone who only heard about how they taste. It obviously is not like eating human babies. Shark is eaten all over the world. You can see it in pretty much all fish markets, and shark fishing is still a type of sport fishing that is practiced everywhere. Elephant and rhino hunting might be viewed as a speciest and ignorant past, but not shark fishing.

I think people have more reservations eating guinea pigs, which is like a must do thing on the way to galapagos.

 

[Doc]

...I think people have more reservations eating guinea pigs, which is like a must do thing on the way to galapagos.

I prefer to do it on the way out of the Galapagos. They make excellent stow-away snacks for the long flight.

 

[theduckguru]

Maybe the park should reduce visitation from the 2011 levels of 150,000 to the 1990 levels of 40,000. Permits could be issued by lottery so all economic groups would have equal access.

Let the park propose something like this and you'll see how much power economics have on the park.