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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Eighty-three: Impressions of the Galapagos – an extended photo-essay > Tourists landing on Punta Moreno, Isabela Island, The Galapagos, Ecuador, 2012
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26-JUN-2012

Tourists landing on Punta Moreno, Isabela Island, The Galapagos, Ecuador, 2012

A group of tourists assembles after landing on a Punta Moreno beach from a Zodiac raft. They climbed a small hill and were getting themselves together as I made this photograph of them in silhouette against a swirling cloudscape.Their gestures and body language reflect a wide range of activity. By backlighting the group, I am able to abstract it and make symbolic of all tourists, rather than a particular group of individuals. The two larger figures on either end of the photograph act as bookends framing the sides of the image just as the clouds frame the top and the hillside itself frames the bottom.

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1/1600s f/8.0 at 10.7mm iso80 full exif

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Phil Douglis03-Aug-2012 20:46
Thanks for this important comment, Carol. The impact of tourism on the Galapagos is staggering. In 1970, when Ecuador drew up its master plan for conservation of this great natural resource, the government estimated that the maximum number of tourists the Galapagos could handle in a year would be about 10,000. Today there are more than 100,000 tourists a year visiting the National Park. When I first visited the Galapagos in 1978, I arrived via an Ecuadorian military transport plane. Today, two airlines fly jetliners into the Galapagos. The Ecuadorian officials have done an amazing job in managing such growth. For example, just this year, the government decided that each tourist boat could only visit a given island once every two weeks. There are also strict limits on the capacity of these boats. The result will be less congestion from tourism. The delicate ecosystem you mentioned is carefully controlled -- all visitors must be accompanied by trained naturalists, and can walk only on certain trials. They are not allowed to step off the trail, for birds are often nesting right next to them. Groups must be carefully spaced so that there can be no congested areas. Ships can only visit any island during certain hours. And no trash, food, or objects can be left on any island at any time. The system appears to be working so far. The great dangers to the ecosystem lie not in tourism itself, but the rapidly growing population of the islands that supports the tourist industry, as well as the "alien" creatures that a growing population brings with it, such as dogs, cats, and livestock. Commercial fishing, disrupting the animals food supply, is also of great concern.

Thanks for getting a sense of touristic invasion from this image. Fortunately, while the numbers of visitors continue to increase, the Galapagos National Park management has been been able to keep the ecosystem intact and pristine.
Carol E Sandgren03-Aug-2012 20:07
The humans invade! With crowds of people arriving on the island, I wonder about the impact they have on the delicate ecosystem there. I love the silhouette against the clouds, which seems to really emphasize the "invasion", along with your low angle looking up, the point of view of what a sea animal would see.
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