Now In Time

OMG, LETS GO TO THE GALAPAGOS!!! It’s not as easy as that. For a seven day trip with five days in the national park including snorkeling gear, transportation to hotel, certified guides that can speak english, meals, extra services, a cruise with food, and some other things will be about $4310. For one person. Tourism in nature isn’t to good anyways… They are all like that, except for that one was a good deal, the company was Southern Explorations. The World Heritage Committee had uncontrolled tourism and population growth on it’s list of 15 main problems. They advised the Galapagos to be on the World Heritage In Danger list. Here is a chart that shows population compared to tourism.

The population was increasing by 6% in the 80’s and 90’s, compared to 2% in the mainland, Ecuador. From 2001 to 2006 flights to the Galapagos increased by 193%, not including private flights from other countries. Galapagos is facing other problems too. More oil means more likely oil spills and sea cucumber fisheries are also a problem. The population is another problem, 4,000 in 1970, 25,000 in about 2000. But that's just the permanent residents. There are also temporary residents (1,800) and “irregular” residents (5,000). There was a lot of trouble with that, but they are trying to deal with the “irregular.” 694 people were informed they were “irregular,” 263 were returned to the mainland, Ecuador, and 275 were banished from Galapagos for one year. It may help the tourism issue if that is helped. There were also attempts to stop population growth, a law in 1998 for example, but holes were discovered in it and it was not too much help. To limit damage done to the wild, there are certain measures taken. For example limited tourist concession, trail guides, and everything is planned out. The National Parks can have people stay out of places, increased stairs and walkways, and change schedules. But the wild still suffers risks. There are more airports and boats, which means more risks to bringing invasive species to the islands. The tourism is also very rapidly growing. In 1990 there were about 40,000 tourists, and in 2006 there were about 145,000. We don’t know what the future holds, and that concludes Now In Time.