#SOSGalápagos Archive

The longline does not distinguish what it catches so many protected species are caught on their hooks. Illustration by Paula de la Cruz Read the original coverage by Isabela Ponce for GK City at bit.ly/2TMy0SP The 'long line', a fishing gear banned in the most famous archipelago in the world in 2005, has not entirely disappeared. A new study threatens the return of this line with hooks that dive up to 50 meters and catch everything that passes in front of them, including several protected species. Jaime Navas was guiding some tourists around the Plaza Sur islands, Galapagos, when they told him that near where they were there was a wounded baby sea lion. It was Carnival Sunday 2018. Along with a colleague, he walked to the rocks where the animal was. The baby had a hook between its chin and its mouth, a nylon thread hung from the hook. Navas held the wet back of the wolf with one arm, with his other hand he held his mouth and teeth while his partner took out the hook with pliers. It was longline, says Jaime, a certified guide for 29 years, you haven't seen that type of hook for a long time around here. Wounded baby sea lion found in South Plaza Island. Photograph by Duncan Divine The longline is an unknown object outside the fishing world. It is an art - a system - of fishing made of a floating main line - which can measure from two to tens of kilometers - from which other secondary and vertical lines are born at the ends of which dozens of circular hooks are placed, which makes it difficult to remove it from animals. “It is not like others that sometimes the weight of the fish manages to stretch the hook. This is almost impossible to cut, ”says Navas.

From November 2012 to November 2013, the pilot plan for deep-sea fishing with long lines (which is a type of fishing not allowed in the archipelago) was implemented in Galapagos. This pilot had the participation of 16 of more than 400 vessels registered in the fishing registry of the Galapagos National Park (PNG). One of the conclusions derived from the final report of the pilot indicated that the opening of deep sea longline fishing in the Galapagos Marine Reserve (GMR) can have very negative consequences on a large number of species whose populations are severely threatened worldwide. However, in that same document, it was contradictorily recommended that the pilot be extended for another year. This inconsistency may surprise many, but those of us who know about fisheries management in the GMR find it normal, since we know that many of the fisheries policies have been and are designed to satisfy pressure from various interest groups, bypassing or minimally using degree of scientific evidence available. Something that suggested that these inconsistencies would be present during this pilot was that from its inception the authorities and researchers refused to use the name longline for the fishing gear, and instead used a euphemism, specifically, Modified Ocean Tie (EOM).