Working Paper # 2013 - 11 A Reconstruction of Fisheries Catches for the Galápagos Islands , 1950 - 2010

2 ABSTRACT The Galápagos Islands are one of Earth's last biodiversity edens. As such, the conservation of their terrestrial and marine wildlife, including the sustainable management of local fisheries, is of paramount importance. Although the commercial exploitation of marine resources in the Galápagos did not begin until the 1930s, issues of overexploitation and mismanagement are already of serious concern. However, to date, research on Galápagos fisheries has been largely species or island specific, and no long-term cumulative catch statistics exist. In this study, total landings associated with the industrial and artisanal fisheries of the Galápagos Islands, were compiled and analyzed in an effort to accurately depict the amount of seafood that has been extracted from this region over the last six decades. The total catch for all sectors from 1950-2010 was 797,000 t, of which industrially caught tuna made up 80%. Our results also show a high degree of fishing down within the inshore ecosystem catch, whereby planktivorous mullets have replaced high trophic level groupers within the past three decades. This shift has coincided with the spatial expansion of the Galápagos fishing fleet to farther offshore , where predatory species are not yet depleted. In addition to legally caught and exported seafood, the Galápagos is also a hotspot for illegal fishing. Of primary concern is the amount of shark finning that has occurred and continues to occur in the Galápagos Marine Reserve, despite attempts at mitigating this ecologically destructive and wasteful practice.