Experts Alarmed Over Discovery Near The Galápagos Islands

Lenín Moreno, the President of Ecuador, took to Twitter in July of 2020 to post a video about the Galapagos Islands. He stated that the site is “one of the richest fishing areas and a seedbed of life for the entire planet.” But what prompted the president to create awareness about the nature site?

The president's alarm traced back to suspicious activities picked up by the Ecuadorian navy that occurred near the site. Unfortunately, the precious group of islands has seen its fair share of danger over the years, with 2017 marking the most recent emergency.

On August 13, 2017, the Ecuadorian navy discovered an unidentified ship crossed into the protected waters of the Galapagos Islands. Not only was this ship entering illegally into the world heritage site's proximity, but it was unclear what kind of cargo this enormous vessel had onboard. Both the Ecuadorian government and conservation organizations knew that they had to act fast.

After the Ecuadorian navy apprehended the vessel, it was identified as the Fu Yuan Yu Leng 999. The ship, manned by Chinese nationals, carried over 300 tons of fish in its freezers. Soon enough, it was clear that illegally crossing into the waters of the Galapagos was just one of several crimes they'd committed.

Of all the marine life stored onboard, a large proportion were endangered species, including illegal hammerheads and threatened silky sharks. While it was unlikely that the crew members of the ship were the fisherman responsible, as they found no fishing gear onboard, they still faced severe punishment for aiding in the poaching.

The crimes of the Fu Yuan Yu Leng 999 were no small matter. Not only did the Ecuadorian government hand down a $5.9 million fine to the owner of the vessel, but they also sentenced the captain to four years in prison, along with several other crew members. Considering that the vessel was part of a fleet consisting of hundreds of ships, the danger was far from over.

But how did the Ecuadorian navy even notice the Fu Yuan Yu Leng 999? Well, they caught on to its presence by detecting the signal from its Automatic Identification System (AIS). While many ships turn their AIS off to avoid detection, no one knows why this vessel left its AIS on. Nevertheless, as a safety measure, the Ecuadorian navy decided to carry out further reconnaissance to see if there were any more threats.

During its aerial reconnaissance mission, the navy astonishingly uncovered more than 100 additional vessels belonging to the ship in question. While the wildlife on the Galapagos Islands remained untouched, discovering so much suspicious activity nearby convinced the navy to remain on high alert. Low and behold, remaining vigilant proved to be the right move.

Fast forward to 2020, and one can understand the Ecuadorian president's concern for protecting the UNESCO world heritage site. Subsequently, the Ecuadorian navy sounded the alarm over another critical threat facing the Galapagos Islands.

In what seemed like a flashback, the Ecuadorian navy identified a fleet of approximately 260 ships in international waters, wading increasingly closer to the 188-mile wide exclusive economic zone (EEZ) around the Galapagos Islands. This time, the public outcry was tenfold.

Immediately after the fleet's discovery, former Ecuadorian environment minister Yolanda Kakabadse expressed dire concern over the situation to the international press. “This fleet’s size and aggressiveness against marine species is a big threat to the balance of species in the Galápagos," she declared in an interview with The Guardian. Ecuador didn't take this threat sitting down.

Kakabadse, together with the ex-mayor of Quito Roque Sevilla, was put in charge of developing a “protection strategy” for the islands. Immediately, they set out to begin diplomatic efforts to pressurize the Chinese-flagged ships into withdrawing from the area. Soon enough, Sevilla revealed that his team was looking to enforce international agreements aimed at protecting the islands' migratory species.

According to the Chinese ambassador to Ecuador, the fishing vessels followed international fishing regulations strictly and didn't commit any illegal activities. What's more, the Ecuadorian government announced that the fleet hadn't entered its waters. What they did not realize, however, is that technology would soon debunk this claim.

Contrary to the aforementioned claim, data analytics company HawkEye 360 discovered the Chinese fishing fleet had indeed crossed into Ecuadorian territory — they'd only turned off their AIS systems to remain undetected. The fleet's failure to continuously transmit AIS signals within Ecuadorian waters violated the law.

Despite the lack of proof of illegal fishing, the fleet's invasive behavior provided enough information for the Ecuadorian navy to monitor vessels by air and sea. After all, Hawkeye 360 explained that while there are legitimate reasons for AIS signals to get lost, there were over 43 occasions on which the ships went dark. Surely, that was more than a coincidence.

If you thought that the involvement of the Ecuadorian navy would be enough to dissuade the ships from hovering around the Galapagos Islands, you'd be wrong. Unbelievably, 14 of the vessels made their way inside the Ecuadorian EEZ during the six-week period from mid-July until August, and they weren't finished yet.

Immediately, Kakabadse's team moved forward with a motion to extend the EEZ of the Galapagos Islands to a 350-mile circumference. In essence, they closed off the corridor of international waters wedged between the islands and the Ecuadorian mainland. Still, this response didn't solve the issue of how to handle vessels already within the region.

Milko Schvartzman, a marine conservation specialist with the Argentine organization Circle of Environmental Policies, stepped up to help with the Ecuadorian mission. He sprung into action, compiling a list of 303 ships in the fleet. Then, he uncovered illegal activities committed by at least 139 of them. Still, they continued their suspicious movements.

By that stage, the fleet was comprised of more than 400 ships. Though ultimately, the majority of the ships left the waters of the Galapagos Islands and headed south. While the UNESCO site was no longer in danger, these ships soon caused concern for fellow South American nations Peru and Chile.

With the fleet hovering close to the Chilean coastline, the navy sprang into action by conducting an extensive reconnaissance mission. When all was said and done, they determined eleven ships had infiltrated Chile's EEZ. While they showed no signs of illegal fishing, the ships in question were looking at dire consequences.

Some might argue that the fleet didn't actually commit a crime, but their presence still put many of the endangered species of the Galapagos Islands in danger. Continuing their voyage of controversy, upon arriving in Peru, the fishing vessels troubled Peruvian fishermen, who had concerns about overfishing the local squid and depleting their livelihood. Clearly, future preventative measures were necessary.

To combat illegal fishing and conserve their already endangered ecosystems, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru issued a joint statement committing to working together to curb the problems in the region. With so many precious species already extinct, we can't afford to waste time when it comes to protecting others at risk, and other nations are just as dedicated to these efforts.

Located outside Seychelles, the Aldabra Atoll is a picturesque spot that houses hundreds of unique animals. One of the most notable creatures on that list is the giant tortoise. According to the National History Museum’s website, over 100,000 of them call the area home. Yet as we’ve already mentioned, the island wasn’t always habitable.

Indeed, the animals that lived on the Aldabra Atoll around 136,000 years ago were wiped out as a result of major changes in the temperature. Yes, the altering weather caused rising sea levels to spill across the island, before it eventually vanished from view. But as time went on, another significant event occurred.

Thousands of years after the Aldabra Atoll was submerged, it appeared again in the Indian Ocean thanks to an ice age. You see, the sharp drops in temperature saw sea levels return to their previous state. And amazingly, while local animals have now reclaimed the island, one of the previous inhabitants came back from extinction.

At this point, you’re probably curious as to the identity of this somewhat miraculous animal. Well, it’s referred to as the Aldabra rail bird, a species that’s around the same height as a chicken. The creature sports dark feathers on its back and a lighter brown shade across its face. Yet that’s not all.

In addition to those colors, the Aldabra rail bird has a white streak running down its neck. That might not seem too important, but this feature gives us some insight into the animal’s past. As it turns out, it comes from a lineage of birds named the white-throated rail.

Now, the white-throated rail could fly at first, but it evolved to become flightless. And of course, its subspecies, the Aldabra rail bird, can’t fly either. It’s believed that once the former settled on the island, its biological makeup changed over time. For you see, the Aldabra Atoll didn’t house any predatory animals that would attack them. So they had no need to glide away.

However, that biological change eventually came at a cost 136,000 years ago. As we highlighted earlier, the Indian Ocean started to spill over into the Aldabra Atoll at that time. That wouldn’t have been a major issue for any of the flying birds, as they could just migrate to another area.

Unfortunately, the Aldabra rail bird didn’t have that luxury, so the animals were stuck on the island when the water came in. Due to that, they all perished once the Aldabra Atoll was submerged, drowning with the other life forms. The event appeared to mark their extinction, before the creatures made a stunning comeback.

On that note, you might be surprised to hear that the Aldabra rail bird isn’t the only animal to come back from the dead. In fact, there are many different species that have followed a similar path down the years. One such life form emerged in February 2019, leaving experts stunned.

Yes, the animal in question was the Fernandina giant tortoise. These specimens apparently died out after 1906, as that year marked the last time anyone saw one on Fernandina Island, in the Galȧpagos. But that soon changed in the early part of 2019, when the Giant Tortoise Restoration Initiative stumbled across one of the creatures.

Upon closer inspection, it was confirmed that the Fernandina giant tortoise was female and more than a century old. If that wasn’t enough, there were said to be additional markings on the island too, suggesting that she might not be the last of her kind. In the end, the animal was transported to the Fausto Llerena Breeding Center to ensure her protection.

Meanwhile, another animal emerged following a long absence back in 1951. Prior to that, experts believed that the Bermuda cahow, a kind of petrel bird, had been gone for well over 300 years, dying out in the wild. Yet amazingly, 36 of them were found near Nonsuch Island, Bermuda.

So conservationists tried to increase them in number over the next few decades, with encouraging results. You see, by 2018 there were more than 130 breeding pairs in the wild. And alongside that, 71 Bermuda cahows found their wings that year as well. But the hard work doesn’t appear to be done just yet.

Jeremy Madeiros, who plied his trade as a conservation officer, spoke to the National Geographic website about the importance of this story. “It’s an ongoing recovery,” he said in March 2019. “[And it’s] an example for threatened species around the world in an era when encroachment on and destruction of habitats is putting more species at risk than ever before.”

A few years before the Bermuda cahow was rediscovered, a different creature hit the headlines. When the dinosaurs were wiped out millions of years ago, the coelacanth fish was believed to be among the casualties. And no one had any reason to believe that they weren’t extinct, but that mindset quickly changed in 1938.

During that period, a woman named Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer was walking through a fish market in South Africa. While looking at the catches, she caught sight of a large, live coelacanth, which she subsequently saved. Unsurprisingly, after a 66 million year absence, that discovery generated plenty of attention.

Since then, it’s been confirmed that just two types of coelacanth can be found in the wild right now. And in addition to that, swimmers have noted sightings of the fish in various locations around East Africa. Indeed, they’ve been seen in waters near Kenya, Mozambique, Tanzania and Madagascar.

While those somewhat ancient animals were close to being completely wiped from the earth, there are more modern species that almost suffered the same fate. The giant panda is one of these, as their numbers plummeted throughout the 1980s. As a result, there were said to be just hundreds left alive.

So conservationists tried to protect the remaining pandas, with plenty of money being spent to aid their efforts. And due to that work, the species was saved from extinction. Yes, by 2018 there were over 1,800 pandas out in the open, while some 300 more were staying safe in zoos, according to National Geographic.

Furthermore, animals like the Louisiana black bear and the lesser long-nosed bat were in comparable positions in the past too. For instance, the latter species suffered countless losses over three decades ago, leaving just under a thousand of them alive. As for the bears, their numbers dwindled dangerously in the early 1990s.

Following those scares, the two animals have managed to avoid extinction. When it comes to the Louisiana black bear, it’s believed there were up to 750 of them roaming around in 2018. Meanwhile, the lesser long-nosed bat regained a healthy population during that time as well. Indeed, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service claimed that their numbers stood at over 200,000.