Isabela Concha de Perla Fotos from before mass tourism ,
I heard from many locals that Concha de Perla and the lagoon behind in Isabela was amazing many years ago, before mass tourism and Liveaboards. They say there were lots of healthy corals and many fish before.
Since some years, the lagoon behind Concha de Perla (the small "circle") is closed to tourists, to avoid further destruction. Coral restoration programs are in place.
Does anybody have underwater footage of how the corals and marine life looked 10-15 years (or even more) ago?
Nowadays it's truly disappointing. No healthy corals. And very few fish.
Also, with all the hundreds of Liveaboards and general pollution in the ocean, you can see all the trash floating into Concha de Perla when high tide is coming. It's disgusting and a shame in the so called "National Park".
, https://www.reddit.com/r/galapagos/comments/1h1xmf0/isabela_concha_de_perla_fotos_from_before_mass/ , https://reddit.com/r/galapagos/comments/1h1xmf0/isabela_concha_de_perla_fotos_from_before_mass/ , 1732805562 , , 1h1xmf0 , self.galapagos , 3 , Snorkeling_Lady , , , , , , , Snorkeling_Lady , 2024-11-28 14:52:42 , no , , Prompt, #Isabela #Concha #Perla #Fotos #mass #tourism, #Isabela #Concha #Perla #Fotos #mass #tourism, 1732863216, isabela-concha-de-perla-fotos-from-before-mass-tourism
I heard from many locals that Concha de Perla and the lagoon behind in Isabela was amazing many years ago, before mass tourism and Liveaboards. They say there were lots of healthy corals and many fish before.
Since some years, the lagoon behind Concha de Perla (the small "circle") is closed to tourists, to avoid further destruction. Coral restoration programs are in place.
Does anybody have underwater footage of how the corals and marine life looked 10-15 years (or even more) ago?
Nowadays it's truly disappointing. No healthy corals. And very few fish.
Also, with all the hundreds of Liveaboards and general pollution in the ocean, you can see all the trash floating into Concha de Perla when high tide is coming. It's disgusting and a shame in the so called "National Park".
To be clear: Since 1998, the expedition cruise fleet capacity has been strictly capped, and only a fraction of ships make a stop at Villamil. Ship-based visitation has been pretty much flat at about 72,000 / year for over 25 years. The government of Ecuador gets rave reviews on how it manages the ship based visitation in Galapagos.
In contrast, land-based visitation has gone from likely less than 1,000 in 1998 to close to 300,000 last year and just keeps on growing, with no limitations imposed. I suspect that 90% of people who visit Villamil are land-based. This of course is a driving force for more hotels, restaurants, more shipping of stuff to Villamil to meet the demand. In 1998, when I first visited Villamil, electricity was cut off from 9PM to 5AM, there were perhaps 4-5 small hotels, and maybe 3-4 places to get bite somewhere.
The government of Ecuador is under pressure from UNESCO’ World Heritage Committee to do something about runaway tourism.