News

Ecuador announced the creation of a new marine sanctuary in the Galapagos Islands aimed at protecting the islands’ population of sharks.

The sanctuary sets aside 15,000 square miles around the islands of Darwin and Wolf—famed for diving with hammerheads, eagle rays, and whale sharks among many other species. This area will be completely off limits to fishing to help keep the ecosystem healthy and the shark population thriving.

Up to now, small fishing vessels were allowed to operate in these waters. However, the increased pressure of illegal fishing practices and global warming led the government to move forward with the sanctuary. It will be added to the current 80,000-square-mile marine reserve created in the Galapagos in 1998.

“These pristine waters around the Galápagos archipelago are precious not just for Ecuadorians but for the whole balance of our ocean systems,” Ecuador’s Environmental Minister, Daniel Ortega Pacheco, told The Guardian. “Shark populations in steep decline around the world come here to rest and breed and we want to guarantee complete sanctuary for them.”

This is just further evidence that shark diving tourism remains one of the top tools for conservation. The value of a single shark in the Galapagos over its lifetime is more than $5 million USD. Dead: $200.