But despite its protected status, the area has been hard hit by poaching and overfishing. Charles Darwin first visited in 1845, and within 50 years, the islands were used as a base for whaling and sea lion hunting expeditions. Today, the profits are to be made in illegal poaching, which is serious business in the Galapagos. Last year, a park warden who surprised a group of poachers was shot to death. The lucrative crop was Ischitopus fuscus, a rare variety of sea cucumber.
Sea cucumbers sit on the ocean floor where they process and filter waste.
The echinoderms are sometimes compared to earthworms because they feed on detritus and turn over up to 90 percent of the biomass on the sea floor. Interest in Galapagos sea cucumbers began in 1988. By 1992, the Ecuadorian government recognized the toll that the depredation was having on underwater natural resources and imposed a complete ban. But despite that ban, sea cucumber harvesting has continued at an alarming rate. According to Daniel Ibarra, a naturalist guide for the Galapagos reserve, Asian buyers employ local fishermen who have invested in equipment, aided by loans from industrial fisheries.