Week9 The Problems

Hello, everyone.
In this week, I will talk about the problems in the Galapagos Islands.
The Galapagos Islands have very difficult environmental problems. Most of them are by human beings.

First, I will talk about the problems about the superfluous fish catch and the illegal fishing.
Overhunting of the sea cucumber in the ocean space of the Galapagos Islands coast became a problem at the middle of the 1990s.
Moreover, the social dispute involving this problem also became a problem.
At this time, Asian contractors came to get the dry sea cucumber for ingredients in Chinese cooking.
Therefore, a lot of sea cucumber fisheries came to be performed in Galapagos.
Not only the influence on the ecosystem by overhunting of a sea cucumber but also many mangroves which was used as fuel those days was cut down to dry the sea cucumber.
The fishing season and the landing quantity of the sea cucumber in the Galapagos Islands were restricted in 1994. However, a fisherman opposes and they cause a riot.
The large-scale industrial fishing by overseas capital etc. has been a problem.
Therefore, local fishermen's dissatisfaction has collected. Now, this overhunting and the poaching of sea cucumber still continue.

Second, I will talk about the problems with the increase in population and tourists.
But in 1535 that Galapagos was discovered by Spanish people, it was after the 19th century that migration of human beings started completely.
However, this migration activity went wrong in many cases and people hardly lived in the Galapagos Islands at the middle of the 20th century. It had a population of 1346 in 1950.
However, after that, population increased quickly, and it become 6119 persons in 1982, 9785 persons in 1990 and 16109 persons in 1998.
This rapid cause of an increase in population is because the Galapagos Islands came to attract attention as a tourist resort and, as a result, the migrants from the Ecuador mainland increased in number for the tourist industry.
However, the forest was cut down for a migrant's house and environmental destruction was performed. Moreover, the car which a tourist drives may hit and kill an iguana.

Finally, there is garbage problem in the Galapagos Islands.
Although the rapid increase in population happened in the Galapagos Islands, the society's infrastructure was not fixed enough. Having appeared notably as the evil was a garbage problem.
The poor waste treatment facility was not able to process the garbage increased by the increased population. Moreover, in order to process forcibly, burn off a field of garbage was performed. Countermeasures against dioxin are not performed in that case. Galapagos finches pick food through garbage and Galapagos Yellow Warbler is making the nest for garbage with asbestos.

There are more problems in the Galapagos Islands. And all of them are difficult problem. Neither is immediately solved. However, it cannot ignore. The natives are continuing efforts now.

That’s all in this week.
Next week, I will introduce the solutions of these problems.
Thank you for your reading. See you then.