University of Aarhus ECOTOURISM AS A WAY TO PROTECT ...

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Ecotourism as a sustainable way to protect nature estimated that more than 100.000 in total were hunted over the centuries. (Charles Darwin foundation, 2001). Today 15.000 tortoises have been counted. Other reptiles on the Galapagos include the marine- and land-iguanas. The land iguanas are endangered because of wild dogs. The only native mammals on the islands are rice rats and two species of bats. The Galapagos have an amazing birdlife. Among the endemic seabirds are penguins, albatrosses, cormorants and gulls. There are 29 resident land birds, of which 22 are endemic. They are largely dull in colour and extremely tame, because of the absence of predators. c. Marine life The cool and warm current system, coupled with a great variety of underwater landscapes, that include underwater volcanoes that rise hundreds of metres to near the sea surface, promote a great diversity of species, including sponges, corals, anemones, gorgonians, shrimp, conchs and starfish. The small animals provide food for larger species of fish, seabirds, dolphins, sea lions and whales. The open ocean in the tropics typically has little productivity, however deep nutrient-rich currents moving east across the Pacific Ocean strike the Galapagos Islands and the underwater volcanoes and rise to the sea surface creating an important feeding zone for marine mammals (Charles Darwin foundation, 2001). All living species in and around Galapagos depend on the sea. Even highly placed communities of plant and animals utilise nutrients released as droppings by marine petrels returning to the nests (Charles Darwin foundation, 2001). The highly productive coastal waters thus support the food chain that extends not only from plankton to shark but also to land plants, insects and birds. Three hundred species of fishes have been found. Sea lions and fur seals 42
Ecotourism as a sustainable way to protect nature are found around the coast, where dolphins, whales and sea turtles are also common. 3.1.3. History Galapagos had no aboriginal inhabitants before the 1900s, probably because of the extreme scarcity of water. The tenth of March 1535 the Spanish Bishop Tomás de Berlanga arrived to Galapagos as the first known arrival of humans. He recorded the island and described the nature scene. The discovery made no impact on the Spanish conqueror or on the English and Dutch navigators, because no great minerals were found (Galapagos Conservation Trust, 2002). During 1600 buccaneers and pirates used the islands as a staging post, for restocking on water and repairing their boats before carrying out raids on the mainland. They caught the giant tortoises, which they brought with them alive on board their ships for fresh meat (Galapagos Conservation Trust, 2002). In the 1800 whaling ships and fur-sealers used Galapagos as a resting spot. They collected tortoises for food and fine “turtle oil” (Galapagos Conservation Trust, 2002). The whalers nearly decimated not only the whales but also the tortoise population before 1860. Fortunately the bottom fell out of the whaling industry (Honey, 1999). In 1835 a young British aristocrat, Charles Darwin stopped at Galapagos while sailing around the world during a five years expedition. He spent five weeks observing the nature. His observation changed the western scientific thought. Darwin noted two important phenomena “that wildlife, with no natural predators, was unusually tame, and that many of the islands had developed their own unique species of animals, birds and plants”. These observations gave rise to his book about evolution by natural selection (Honey, 1999). 43
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University of Aarhus ECOTOURISM AS A WAY TO PROTECT ...

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