• Executive summary - key points

1. Galapagos at risk
2. Galapagos is undergoing constant change
3. Changing tourism markets
4. Changing tour operators
5. Local benefits
6. Financing in Galapagos
7. Fishing and differences among the Islands
8. New local operators in tourism
9. Impacts of tourism
10. Leadership and governance
11. Subsidies and incentives in Galapagos
12. Conclusion

• References

７．Fishing and differences among the Islands

　The history of the fisheries in Galapagos is one of boom and bust that has provoked serious population declines in sea cucumber, grouper, lobster and possibly of other species (Hearn, Murillo et al. 2007). The principal causes of these failures have been an inability to control fishing and subsequent overcapitalization. Murillo, Reyes et al. (2007) consider that most of the fishing effort in the 2006 lobster fishery involved only 250 fishers out of a total of over 1,000 registered Galapagos fishers.

　From the early 1990s, fishing has been based on sea cucumbers, which was arguably an important source of income for local people, particularly so for the islands of Isabela and San Cristobal. In the last three years, fishing has abruptly dropped in importance from annual gross income values of up to $8M to now less than $3M (Hearn and Murillo, 2007). The impact of this decline has been conflict-ridden, particularly for those islands where tourism has not grown as rapidly. The perception that most tourism benefits flow to Santa Cruz exacerbates the problem. Any solution in Galapagos must take into consideration the socioeconomic and cultural differences among the islands.

　The characteristics of islands already highlighted, including distance to market, absence of economies of scale and the presence of few exploitable high value products means that it is unlikely that any "new fisheries" exist in Galapagos. The most important products at the moment, sea cucumber, grouper, and lobster, must be more effectively managed with a reduced number of fishers.