Blog of a Vegan Pirate - The State of the Galapagos by Tod Emko

[Annces]

Post 1: The State of Galapagos
by Tod Emko

February 16, 2009

From September to December 2008, the vegan conservation groups Sea Shepherd, Animal Balance, and S.P.E.C.I.E.E.S. waged a fight to protect the ecosystem and all the animals of the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador. This blog recounts what happened in that time, serving for those three groups.

The blog post below describes what the state of the Galapagos is, and what has transpired there with Sea Shepherd before my arrival.

First of all, the people responsible for a lot of the progress in this campaign can never be thanked or recognized, because identifying them would put them at great physical risk. That said, the residents of the Galapagos who helped us are absolutely invaluable to our cause, and without their support, our task here would be nearly futile.

And before we start talking about the actual campaign for conservation and animal welfare, it's important to understand the state of conservation in the Galapagos, and the state of Sea Shepherd here, in order to understand the nature of the fight.

The Galapagos Islands

As the residents of the Galapagos say, "The Galapagos isn't Ecuador." It's its own world, with its own culture, history, and conflicts.

The Galapagos is absolutely nothing like any guidebook makes it out to be. It is a beautiful archipelago that needs a lot more help than anyone thinks. The sad truth is that the Galapagos is under such extreme ecological pressure that many of the unique plants and animals that identify these islands are rapidly going extinct, and it may be a few short years before all the amazing species of this archipelago disappear completely.

Twenty years ago, there were around 1,000 people total on Santa Cruz island, the most populace island of the Galapagos. This year, there are nearly 20,000 residents of this island, and it sees well over 1,000 new tourists per month, around 160,000 visitors a year, with over 350 truck taxis driving on it 24 hours a day. The impact of that many people absolutely crushes the ecosystem for many reasons.

In 2000, the Galapagos islands produced around 10 tons of garbage for the whole year. In just the first three quarters of 2008, however, the islands already produced 800 tons of trash. That number doesn't count the tons of plastic products imported by giant cargo ships multiple times per week. But regardless of where it comes from, almost all of the trash is now sitting in the national park or floating in the waters of the Galapagos, killing countless sea turtles, sea lions, unique birds, tropical fish, etc. And these rare, exotic islands with unique forests are not conducive to holding the giant landfills they are now forced to host. At this point, there are more introduced, invasive species like rats, parasites, and crippling animal diseases on Santa Cruz Island than there are endemic species on this island.

FULL ARTICLE
http://supervegan.com/

[ixion]

1. funny how you never see those piles of trash on the nature shows

you'd think they'd find that significant. :eyes:

[flvegan]

2. We are indeed the most perfectly destructive species.

The entire article is a good read. I didn't know of SPECIEES until reading this, and it's good to know Allison Lance Watson is running it.

[CrispyQ]

3. "Call someplace paradise, kiss it goodbye."

The human species exercises no restraint on their behavior or their activity.

We do stuff because we can, with never a consideration if we should.

[Delphinus]

4. OMG!

That song makes me cry - sob - break down and weep every time I hear it because of the truth contained within.