Abstract

The Galapagos Islands are well known globally for their unique natural environment; however various factors influence the health of many emblematic marine species in the Archipelago, driven by a rapid expanding human population and tourism. Concerns include increased pollution maritime traffic and import of goods to the islands, the impacts of introduced species and overfishing, and also changes in ecosystem structure and resource availability due to climate change.^1,2 Previous health research in Galapagos wildlife has been focused on detecting diseases in avian and sea lions populations, and on anthropogenic impacts on sea turtles and birds.^3-9 However, these individual programs were suspended due to lack of funding.

To date, despite many isolated reports of injured animals [handled by the Galapagos National Park Service (GNPS)] there is no formal emergency network in place to rapidly detect sick, injured or dead marine wildlife in Galapagos, nor is there a systematic program for health and disease monitoring and treatment. As a consequence, many animals that come ashore are left or buried on the beach, with often inconsistent collection of important information useful to determine the cause of death and the health status of their populations. This new project aims to establish the baseline for a long-term surveillance and monitoring program to evaluate the health status and threats to the most emblematic marine species in the Galapagos Marine Reserve (GMR) such as sea lions, fur seals, sea turtles, sea birds, marine iguanas, cetaceans, etc. To achieve this goal, a multi-institutional cooperation between Galapagos National Park (GNPS), Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF) and other stakeholders was established to agree on the most effective methodology, organization and implementation of a rapid response network, standardized protocols, capacity building and outreach.¹⁰ We have started working to improve passive health surveillance which consists in collecting data from all the individuals found sick, injured or dead throughout the Archipelago, performing complete necropsies and sample analysis of dead specimens and clinical examinations of live individuals. For the latter, veterinary first aid is being provided to animals affected by anthropogenic effects, following established ethical criteria developed with the Galapagos Park authorities. This methodology will also allow us to detect signs of anthropogenic interactions related to the animal's cause of death or injury, and to establish a database of such incidents. This new tool will provide GNPS managers relevant information on wildlife health status in order to facilitate decision making towards retention of marine biodiversity and environment conservation.

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Galapagos Conservancy and Lindblad/National Geographic for financial support of this project as well as the International Association of Aquatic Animal Medicine and Mr. DeDomenico for conference attendance support.

* Presenting author

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