Armed Fishermen Occupy Galapagos National Park

DARWIN RESEARCH STATION, Galapagos, Ecuador, June 4, 2004 (ENS) - The offices of Galapagos National Park on Santa Cruz Island and the offices of the National Park on Isabella Island have been taken over by angry mobs of fishermen armed with clubs, lead pipes, and Molotov cocktails, Sea Shepherd founder Captain Paul Watson reports by email from the Galapagos Islands. Also taken were the island of Espanola and the tourist sites there, he says.

"Sea Shepherd crew members are being held hostage by angry mob of fishermen demanding unrestricted exploitation of sea cucumbers," Watson wrote Thursday night, explaining that the crew is unarmed.

The Sea Shepherd is in the Galapagos in the fourth year of a five year contract to help park rangers patrol the Galapagos park for poachers and other law breakers.

The Sea Shepherd crew from the "Farley Mowat" at anchor in Academy Bay off Santa Cruz island had joined the Galapagos Park rangers at barbed wire barricades erected at the park office entrances. Another group of Sea Shepherd crew had been sent to guard an old sea turtle, nicknamed Lonesome George, who resides at the park.

The National Park has requested the assistance of 40 marines from the Ecuadorian Navy, but to date they have not arrived.

Sea cucumbers are in demand as a delicacy in Asia (Photo courtesy TRAFFIC)

The trouble started May 28 when the fishermen rioted in Puerto Ayora and forced the closure of the one gasoline station on the island.

Jared Rubin, communications officer of the Farley Mowat, writes, "The fishermen went so far on Thursday night as to seize the only gas station on the island and impede traffic on the main road from Puerto Ayora to Isla Baltra. Their strategy immediately backfired when many citizens suddenly deprived of basic freedoms recognized the culprits for the thoughtless, uneducated and insatiably greedy thugs they are."

"The money which will support the children of the citizens of Galapagos will come from sustainable tourism, not the reckless strip mining of natural resources to appease the Asian markets," Rubin wrote.

The Environment Minister Fabian Valdivieso gave into to the fishermen's demands that a meeting to discuss the sea cucumber situation be moved from Quito to the Galapagos, but that has not appeased them.

In addition, the rangers and all persons guarding the park office were ordered out by the Ministry of the Environment, basically leaving the office in the hands of the mob," wrote Watson.

"Another nail will be hammered into the coffin of this World Heritage Site when the rest of the fishermen's demands are met and the last of the sea cucumber sanctuaries are opened to unrestricted desecration and the already inflated quotas are discarded," warned Rubin.

Watson wrote, "Our Sea Shepherd crew on Isabella Island is still being held hostage there, and that includes citizens from America, Canada, New Zealand and Switzerland. There has been no word from them."

"The fact is that the Galapagos Islands are a World Heritage site," wrote Watson. "We all have a responsibility to protect them, not just the Ecuadorians!"

The Galapagos National Park is online at: http://www.galapagospark.org/en/home.htm

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is at: http://www.seashepherd.org

The Charles Darwin Research Station is found at: http://www.darwinfoundation.org/research.html