|
Fishing
Boats keep chatching sharks using illegal LONG LINE method
(March 5, 2003) |
||||||||||
 |
||||||||||
| Only
one boat has been patrolling the marine reserve in the last 3 weeks. Marco Altamirano, the new Director of the National Park Service, declared that the Park is having several problems. They have to change one of the two engines of the main patrol boat, the fast boat, Guadalupe River. One of the small fast patrol boats burned last year, and the other one has to be repaired, and worse, the Park has cut its budget in 25%. |
||||||||||
| GUADALUPE RIVER PNG | ||||||||||
 |
||||||||||
| SIRENIAN | ||||||||||
| he
Sirenium fast patrol boat, owned by the Sea Shepperds, is still in
loan to the park, and is used for most of the patrolling. From December to June, when the water gets warmer, some fishermen dedicate their efforts to capture sharks, which is a forbidden activity on the Galapagos Islands. Mostly, the problem of shark fishing comes from Isabela Island, as this island is mainly populated by fishermen. Shark fishing is done during the night and this island is very far away from the docks of the patrol boats of the Galapagos National Park. The patrol boats that the park has are too slow to get to the sites of illegal fishing on time, or to chase the illegal fishing boats. |
||||||||||
| On February 17, 2003, a Patrol Boat spotted two fast fishing boats called “fibras” but they were faster that the patrolling boats and managed to escape. They left a long line behind which had captured 8 blue sharks, 2 marlin, 2 “barriletes” and 1 Galapagos shark. |  |
|||||||||
| On
17th, January, 2003 , a Costa Rican fishing boat was spotted with
a 10-mile long line in the water, which is illegal inside the Marine
Reserve; it was chased for two hours but managed to escape, leaving
the long line behind. The method used to fish sharks is by placing 180-meter long nets in the evening and collecting them in the morning, when the nets are full of dead sharks. And even worse, it has been proven that the shark fishers use sea lion meat as bait, this is also forbidden in the Galapagos Reserve, as sea lions are a protected species. |
||||||||||
| Last
year Galapagos National Park Rangers found an illegal camping site
where they found pieces of sea lions. The Ecuadorian government should give more support to the Galapagos National Park to stop shark fishing and other illegal activities that take place in the archipelago. |
||||||||||
 |
||||||||||
| We are still on time to protect the well known “Shark Mecca of the World”. | ||||||||||
|
Source: www.elcomercio.com www.darwinfoundation.org |
 |
|||||||||
| Related
Topics:
Patrolling the Marine Reserve Article GO2 Scuba Diving with sharks GO2 |
||||||||||
| Links:
Sharks endangered
by fin trade, focus on Galapagos, nice pictures. Research News
and Backfground information on the Protection, Ecology, Biology
and Behavior of the shark. Illegal Shark
Hunting for fins off Ecuador´s Galapagos Islands |
||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||
