Anyone following the situation in the Galapagos?

[Jonathan Bird]

Hi All,
Not sure if you have been following the situation in the Galapagos, but the short story is that the Galapagos have been getting a lot of heat recently for their non-existant enforcement of the fishing laws and there was a question of whether they were going to lose their World Heritage Site status.

As a result, they decided to start enforcing the laws to an extent, and one of them was to stop allowing boats that were not properly permitted to carry out diving operations. Apparently a number of the smaller or lesser known dive boats were only permitted to do land tours, but were doing dive trips as well. (You would think the government would be more interested in the illegal fishing, but their word is something about enforcing fishing and diving laws equally equitably. There might be a little payback here for the dive boats that are always complaining about and reporting on the illegal fishing.)

Anyway, the national park people claim that the majority of dive boats were not permitted as dive boats. As a result, they have all been told that they cannot operate as dive boats until they get proper permits and that if they do, they will have their existing permits (land tour permits) revoked. They have even started using a patrol boat to enforce this. (Which is ironic since they claimed they didn't have the manpower or money to support a patrol boat to enforce fishing regulations in the past).

I have some friends that headed down to the Galapagos on a dive trip last week. Many of them had saved for years for the trip, paid more than they could afford because it was a once-in-a-lifetime trip, bought new cameras, etc. and when they got there, the dive operator informed them that the trip was "snorkeling only." They are going to have a hard time making a claim on a travel insurance policy because the trip is not cancelled. Just an incredible bummer.

My understanding is that the Peter Hughes and the two Aggressor boats are the only operators not affected by this, as they had proper diving permits. I am glad that my next trip (not until 2009) is on Aggressor.

Anyone heard anything else?

Jonathan