Today, Isabela Island is home to approximately 1,800 residents who earn livings as fishermen, farmers and tour guides. A special tour guide near and dear to all of our hearts, Paola, guided us around the South end of the island. After a short hotel visit, Paola took the group on a bike tour around the village. At the end of our tour, we went to an old quary that had filled up from permeated seawater. When the quary was first abandoned, the water was stocked with brine shrimp which made a perfect habitat for flamingos to flock during migratory periods. (Although it is not common for flamingos to migrate, changing climate patterns around the world have made it more common for them to move.) However, the threat of hypoxia in the quary has forced many of these birds to migrate as competition for resources has increased. Now, only a handful of flamingos remain and it is not expected that they will continue to feed in the area much longer. Following the depressing tale of the flamingos, Paola informed us on the current issues that are affecting marine species. As the marine life that surrounds the Galapagos is so diverse, illegal fishing and overfishing constitutes for the majority of species loss. An example of illegal fishing in the Galapagos was when a fishing boat was caught by Ecudadorian police with 6,000 hamerhead sharks from inside the Galapagos Protected Area. Other fish that are overhunted in the Galapagos are tuna, sea urchin and sea lions. Another issue that is impacting humans on the Galapagos Islands is the inaccessibility to new technology from the mainland as exporting materials to the islands is expensive. As Paola was born and raised on Isabela, she was able to provide several examples. Currently, Isabela Island requires a desalinization plant to convert the saltwater from the ocean into freshwater for human use. However the filter needed in desalinization had broken and it had been over a month to receive the filter at a cost of about $20,000. Sources: https://www.worldwildlife.org/places/the-galapagos https://www.galapagos.org/about_galapagos/about-galapagos/the-islands/isabela/
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ExperienceThrough Stockton University, I traveled to Ecuador where I studied Biodiversity, |