Biblioteca

The Galapagos Marine Reserve (GMR) was created in 1998, covering an area of 138,000 km2 that surrounds the islands of the Galapagos Archipelago. The GMR was created on the basis of a 40 nautical mile buffer from the smallest polygon that encompasses all islands boundaries. In 2001, the GMR was included as a Natural World Heritage Site due to its outstanding universal value. Located at the confluence of three major ocean currents, mixing warm and cold and nutrient rich waters, the GMR has an exceptional marine biodiversity, high level of endemicity, while having a primary production that supports a very high biomass of pelagic species (Wellington et al., 1984; Danulat and Edgar, 2002; Edgar et al., 2004a; Bustamante et al., 2008; Salinas de León et al., 2016; Boerder et al., 2017; Bucaram et al., 2018).

The GMR is managed as a multi-use protected area. This means that, while the general objective of the GMR is enhancing its conservation, some areas are reserved for local artisanal fishers (fishing use), some for the appreciation and enjoyment of the public (tourism use) and others are kept preserved in their natural state (conservation use). Industrial fishing is banned within the GMR, while artisanal fishing is permitted for registered fishermen of the local community. Because the...