Visitor Sites, Galapagos: Anchors Aboard Mooring Project
WildAid, Conservation International, the Galapagos National Park Service, and INOCAR, installed the first mooring buoy of many in November 2007 as a way to reduce impacts on underwater marine systems.
The majority of tourists visit the islands on live-aboard boats, which provide the only point of access to many visitor sites. Each boat visit, amounting to hundreds per year at the more visited sites, results in an anchor being dropped.
The use of anchors causes damage to the seafloor environment and fragile coral reefs.
As the INOCAR permit process has been completed, we aim to install six mooring bouys at Bartolome and two near the island of Wolf in 2008. Funding for the first part of the project has been provided by the Crown Family.
Source: WildAid