The most important events in 1999 have been:

The Congressional approval in March of the Galapagos Marine Reserve Management Plan. This plan is the result of a participatory planning process involving all stakeholders.

Several successes in the on-going pig eradication program on Santiago (James) Island, and the goat eradication program on Pinta Island.

The creation of the Fishing Calendar for year 2000, including a legal sea cucumber fishing season for two months (May through June), and a lobster fishing season for four months (September through December).

The newly created protected area, the Galapagos Marine Reserve has been included under the jurisdiction of the Galapagos National Park Service. The change has also meant in title and the Ecuadorian governmental management authorities are now officially known as Department of Protected Areas of Galapagos.

The death of 23 giant tortoises and the subsequent investigation in El Chato, Santa Cruz Island.
 
 

Personnel

Old faces, new faces... Edgar Muñoz and Desirée Cruz have come back to work with us again. Edgar is the new Head of the Tourism Unit, and Desirée, our External Relations Officer. There is a new Deputy Director. He used to work at our Technical Office in San Cristóbal Island. He’s name is Diego Bonilla. And who’s replacing Diego? A young biologist (born and raised in San Cristobal Island) who used to work as a dive and naturalist guide: Edwin Naula.

Protection

• The eradication of pigs on Santiago Island goes on. During 1999, 18 trips have been made. We are entering the final phase of our program whose goal is the protection of Santiago’s subspecies of giant tortoise, and other rare endemic animal and plant species.
• As a part of the Isabela Project, a bi-institutional effort (CDRS/GNP), three hunting trips went to Alcedo Volcano. The previously stable native ecosystem in Alcedo has been severely threatened in recent years by the presence of large number of goats.
• Twice, Pinta Island, original home of Lonesome George, has been declared "goat-free". Previously available methods did not achieve complete eradication and recent trips now use the "Judas Goat" technique of releasing goats with tracking collars to locate the last difficult to find feral animals. This system appears to have been successful and future regular monitoring trips will establish whether the goats have been finally removed completely from Pinta.
• The restoration and monitoring program at Pitt Islet (San Cristobal Island) suggests that there are no more introduced rats left there.
• As a part of our land iguana breeding program, feral cats have been controlled in strategic sites: Baltra Island, Conway Bay (Santa Cruz Island), and Cartago Bay (Isabela Island).
• On Floreana Island, control of introduced plants is carried out successfully. Park rangers are working with guava, "mother-of-thousands" or Kalanchoe, Lantana and passionfruit, particularly in Cerro Pajas. Fifteen hectares have been cleared from these pests.
• Control of introduced plants on Santa Cruz Island has been intensified, particularly along the road from Puerto Ayora to Itabaca Channel. Fifteen hectares of blackberry, eight of elephant grass, and six of Ricinus have been cleared.
• Also on Santa Cruz, 45 hectares of quinine have been manually eradicated from Media Luna, site of the rare Miconia plant species and nesting site for the Dark-rumped Petrel.
• At El Junco Lagoon, San Cristóbal Island, eight hectares were cleared from guava and blackberry.
• A new Control Point was built close to the small village of Santa Rosa, in the highlands of Santa Cruz. With it, we will be better equipped to control the illegal extraction of timber (particularly matazarno, a native wood in demand for its resistant properties), and other building material.
• There is a new fence at Cerro Colorado (San Cristobal) protecting what’s left of the endemic Calandrinia galapagosa and Lecocarpus darwinii communities, plant species of limited distribution which are threatened by introduced herbivores.
• Our staff on Isabela is working hard in reforestation of urban areas with native plants. The interior gardens of the Puerto Villamil Giant Tortoise Breeding and Rearin Center are especially beautiful!
• The Dark-rumped Petrel Monitoring Program continues on the islands of Santa Cruz and Floreana, and on Alcedo Volcano (Isabela).

• The breeding and rearing centres in Santa Cruz hold 453 tortoises and 33 land iguanas. In Isabela, the Breeding and Rearing Center has 429 tortoises.
• 731 individuals were counted on the annual flamingo census.
• The annual penguin and cormorant census gave as an estimate: 1200 penguins and 900 cormorants.

Tourism

Special attention has been given to tour boat itineraries. Throughout the year, using our own vessels, or joining regular tour boats, our staff has been checking whether licensed boats followed their assigned itineraries. This is a way to enforce our Visitor Sites’ Carrying Capacity Strategy.

Environmental Education

• We have been working closely with local elementary- and high schools.
• For almost three months, and with the assistance of the San Francisco de Quito University, a naturalist guide’s course was organized. Naturalist guides are very important in the management of the Galapagos National Park.
• On Isabela Island, we organized the first guide’s course for Isabela. This group will lead visitors only on Isabela, in an attempt to encourage locals to get more involved in touristic activities.

• The Galapagos Marine Reserve Management Plan was approved in March, a year after the creation of the Reserve, the first of its kind in Ecuador.
• As a part of the Coastal Clean-up Program, 19 trips have been organized. The most commonly collected item is plastic, out of a total of 7662 kg of waste. The Coastal Clean-up Program uses local fishing boats to travel along the coastline of Galapagos collecting trash.
• Two base camps to aid patrol and control programs are being designed and are to be built in the near future in critical areas of the Galapagos Marine Reserve.
• In 1999, 42 legal trials for breaches of the Galapagos Marine Reserve regulations were started. The most important are: "Cash Flow", a Costa Rican boat caught with an illegal cargo of shark fins (which escaped custody), and "Mary Cody", an Ecuadorian long-liner, caught fishing within the boundaries of the 40 nautical mile Reserve limit and which is still under the custody of the Galapagos National Park.

Prepared by: Desirée Cruz, External Relations Officer
June 2000.