Animals In The Galapagos And How They Are Being Threatened

Isn't it amazing that more than 160,000 tourists visit this place every year, (www.worldwildlife.org)? The Galapagos is also home to many predators and prey in a part of the natural food web. According to www.worldwildlife.org, some predators that live in the Galapagos include leatherback turtles, many species of whales including sei whales and blue whales, sea lions, great white sharks, tuna the galapagos hawk and numerous other species. On the website www.Galapagosconservation.org,  you can find information about some prey like, ¨invertebrates such as giant centipedes, locusts, snakes, rodents, lizards, young iguanas, turtle hatchlings and various other birds¨. Some adaptations animals have to live and survive there are vampire finches drinking other animal blood to enrich its diet, woodpecker finches use cactus spines, insects and bark to catch animals and marine iguanas can dive up to 40 feet below the surface to escape predators plus they can decrease their body mass and make themselves shorter to lessen diet when little to no food is available. Humans also benefit from these islands. According to www.worldwildlife.org, humans fish and farm here ever since it got discovered in 1535 and they inhabited the land with roughly 3,000 people living there. There was big competition between fishermen to catch lobsters, a valuable item. 

Something that makes the Galapagos special is the fact that ¨The islands are situated at a point in the Pacific Ocean where three ocean currents collide, creating a unique area in the sea where warm and varying degrees of cold water meet.¨ (www.Celebritycruises.com) Unfortunately, the magnificent Galapagos is also being threatened by illegal and overfishing. According to www.worldwildlife.org,  people fish in the marine ecosystems because they want to find fish, tuna, lobster and many more aquatic species. Fishing has strict rules in the Galapagos as only recreational tour boats permitted by the Galapagos National Park are allowed to fish. Pollution is also another problem in the Galapagos. People are polluting too much when they come here and this is affecting land and marine ecosystems and is really increasing due to another problem - unstable tourism. Unstable tourism is that too many people are coming to the place that originally belongs to the animals and is increasing the pollution counter. It is also causing higher usage  of fossil fuels (which is air pollution) and also is bringing invasive species to the islands and is ruining the food chain while eating native species and/or harming them in another way they might not even know they are doing. This is a problem and should be put to an end as soon as possible because humans need this region just as much as species need it too. It makes me feel sad that entire ecosystems are being destroyed just by humans. According to www.discoveringGalapagos.org, the Galapagos has special scalesia trees that are really good at sucking up carbon dioxide, a harmful chemical in the atmosphere, and without the Galapagos, many animals would lose their home and some would even go extinct because their are animals that specifically live in the Galapagos. How would you feel if someone didn't care about you and home and just wandered by destroying everything it sees? How would you feel if your home was treated like a trash can and brought little aliens to your land?