Galapagos Islands Under Threat

The Galapagos Islands are quickly becoming a tourist hotspot and are expected to draw more tourists in 2015, but is tourism causing detrimental repercussions?

Tourism contributes largely to every country’s economy and today’s society is always looking for new untouched and exciting places to visit.

The Galapagos Islands off the coast of Ecuador hold a diverse and fascinating medley of animal species. It is home to many creatures such as the albatross, the land iguana, the marine iguana, the Galapagos sea lion, and the famous Galapagos tortoise. The creatures that inhabit these islands make the Galapagos islands ecosystems extremely unique and rare.

In other words, the ecosystem cannot be imitated or replaced. But now the islands are under threat and are feeling the weight of illegal fishing, the introduction of non-native species, and boat loads of tourists. Each year over 160,000 tourists visit the islands to experience its unique ecosystem and the beauty it has to offer.

Charles Darwin was one of the first tourists to visit the island, and as such the islands contributed to his theory of evolution and paved the way for modern day evolutionary study. But now because the huge influx of humans visiting the islands that have primarily been entirely human-free, the Galapagos ecosystem is being damaged.

Like many tourist hot spots, the islands are seeing large amounts of environment damage because of humans. In an age moving towards environmentally friendly tourism (like the option to not have your sheets washed to save water when staying in a hotel) why are we still damaging untouched environments?

Taylor-Jayne Wilkshire

Source: http://www.worldwildlife.org/places/the-galapagos

Image: foter.com