Serious New Regulations in the
Galapagos Islands
from the January, 2007 issue of Undercurrent
The Galapagos have become a very popular destination
for divers wanting big fish action. All the boats are
selling out months in advance. The number of tourists
has skyrocketed to nearly 100,000 per year, as many as
20,000 of whom are divers.
This increase in visitors creates pressure on both
the Galapagos' land visitation areas and the dive sites.
So the Galapagos National Park (GNP) is implementing
new rules to reduce the pressure any one tourist
creates on Galapagos' ecosystems. The GNP owns and
controls the Galapagos so when it makes a rule, it takes
effect immediately. This year, the GNP issued a rule
that there must be two divemasters on every dive outing.
And, they also began managing itineraries. By
altering the boats' itineraries, the GNP is able to spread
them around the archipelago, thus reducing the impact
on heavily visited locations. Therefore all yachts in
Galapagos must follow their standard itineraries every
week. Here are other potential changes:
No more diving on naturalist trips. Many of the
naturalist boats offer occasional diving on their tours.
"It used to be that one out of 100 trips were to be for
diving, but I'm guessing now that 20 to 30 percent of
all trips are dive trips," said Marc Bernardi, owner of
Aquatic Encounters, which runs the Reina Silvia on
seven-night dive trips in the Galapagos. There is much
concern that many of these new dive operators aren't
very experienced.
No more ten-night dive itineraries starting in 2008.
In the past, passengers on ten-night dive trips did a lot
of diving and quite a few land visits, too. That meant
each individual on one of these trips created more dive
pressure than any one individual on a seven-night dive
trip, plus the same amount of pressure on the land as a
second person on a naturalist trip.
While his boat doesn't do 10-day trips, Bernardi also
says it's a good idea to limit the number of days per
trip. "Right now, all the ten-day trips go to Darwin and
Wolf islands and spend most of their time there, which
makes too much of an impact on the marine life." But
if boats are limited to seven-day itineraries, Bernardi
is in favor of limiting the number of boats at Wolf and
Darwin to three at a time. "Too many people diving at
once would ruin the islands. The whale sharks would be
touched too much, so they'd leave. Plus, everyone and
their brother would be running a dive trip there, smashing
into each other, and that would not be good for the
environment."
Potential limits to land excursions and night diving.
Now that naturalist boats may no longer be allowed to
offer occasional diving, the owners of these vessels are
pushing the GNP to tell the dive boats that they are no
longer allowed to do any land excursions at all. Most of
the dive yachts' owners do not think that this will happen,
although it is possible that the land visitation sites
they will be allowed to visit will be limited. Right now,
all the dive yachts are offering a limited number of land
excursions on their trips. This could change at any time
without notice. Land excursions never have been and
never will be allowed on either Darwin Island or Wolf
Island. If these additional restrictions pass, divers will
be sorely cheated of all the Galapagos wonders, said
Bernardi. "If you're only allowed to go up to Darwin
and Wolf, to dive, you'd get a lot of diving, but you'd
miss out on all the animals on land that the Galapagos
have to offer. That wouldn't be such a great trip for the
customer."
Also, the GNP is currently considering a proposal
that would ban night diving. Night diving in Galapagos
has always been the exception rather than the rule. On
most nights, the yachts are either navigating or else
there are no nearby areas safe for night diving. The Sky
Dancer and Deep Blue still will occasionally offer night
dives. The Galapagos Aggressor is no longer offering
night dives on any of its trips.
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