Ecuador fights back

Expansion of the Galapagos Islands Marine Protected Area

As Alexandra Valencia (Reuters) reports, on 14 January Ecuador created a new marine protected area around its pristine Galapagos Islands, whose rich biodiversity inspired Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, to extend protection for endangered migratory species. The expansion of the protected area by 60,000 square kilometres is the first step in a plan that Ecuador agreed with its immediate neighbours Colombia, Costa Rica and Panama at the UN climate summit in Glasgow last year to create a shared corridor through which species threatened by climate change and industrial fishing can migrate. The existing Galapagos Marine Protected Area, one of the largest in the world, is around 138,000 square kilometres in size, while the new protected area will cover 198,000 square kilometres.

Conservationists say the reserve will help protect at least five endangered species - including hammerhead sharks, whale sharks, turtles and other species that migrate between the Galapagos Islands and Costa Rica's Cocos Island.

Even if the space available to Ecuadorian fishing crews is reduced, this will not prevent the presence of a Chinese fishing fleet of 300 vessels that anchors in international waters off the islands every year to catch giant squid.