Abstract
In recent years a local experiential sport fishing industry, commonly known as Pesca Vivencial (PV), has emerged as a new type of activity in the Galápagos Marine Reserve (GMR). We analyze this new industry, which incorporates a surprising multitude of styles, using a complex adaptive systems (CAS) framework. We use CAS (a) to trace feedbacks between the ecological changes and social processes involved and (b) to frame the driving factors behind PV as extending beyond the fishing sector, which makes its logic as a response to the declining profitability of commercial fisheries over recent decades more understandable. The birth of this industry is a “response” and a bottom-up adaptation by fishers to changes in fishing but also tourism and overall GMR management. Focusing on the island of San Cristobal, this chapter will include historical analyses of the development of PV through its initial proposals and its changing forms of uptake. This article contributes to a thin area of research in this new activity so far, understanding the contested politics and livelihood struggles of the local residents involved. More broadly, our use of CAS is novel in that power dynamics within human interactions are part of feedbacks, often underplayed when applied to fisheries change.
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Notes
- 1.
In just one example, early PV regulations over motor power put participants in ambiguous legal positions. Motors were not to exceed 135 horsepower (HP) for artisanal fishing. A boat with tourists must have two motors however, which would add up to 150 HP (75 HP each), making them illegal for artisanal fishing and therefore PV, at that time a type of fishing activity. Some fishers interpreted these complications in PV as “intended obstruction(s)” rather than growing pains (Stacey and Fuks 2007: 87).
- 2.
Carlos Ricaurte, largely credited as one of Pesca Vivencial’s creators, viewed breaking into tourism as an inherently political process and one in which established routes such as converting his vessel to a tourism operation were closed to him, as proven by his unsuccessful application for a bay tour permit in 1997.
- 3.
This idea also draws continuity from the 1970s and earlier, before the rise of large cruise ships, when tourists commonly paid fishermen to take them around the islands and to participate in fishing activities (Stacey and Fuks 2007, interviews).
- 4.
These disputes extended even into the fishing community, where debates over initial exclusion of two of the three types of fishing boats as potential PV vessels delayed approval of provisional rules by several months. Beyond this many fishers took a “wait-and-see” approach because of a lack of clarity on PV’s market potential (Zapata 2006).
- 5.
Objections were raised by ASOGAL and DIGMER during the AIM meeting where PV was introduced in 2005 (Zapata 2006). ASOGAL’s approval is needed on all marine activities in the GMR, giving added weight to its objection.
- 6.
The total lack of knowledge about the economic viability and market potential of PV was also an issue (Zapata 2006), although the debate over whether to categorize PV as a tourist activity was immediate and overshadowing.
- 7.
The high seas trips being offered in 2011 were around $1,200/day, and nearshore trips were only slightly less.
- 8.
Ospina (2006) noted that in 1998 one midsized Ecuadorian industrial tuna vessel had a capacity of 600 net tons, while the large boats of the Galapagos artisanal fishing fleet combined comprised only 50 tons.
- 9.
There is also concern among biologists about the true survival rate of catch and release fish, although many released in good condition survive the immediate future (Domeier et al. 2003).
- 10.
Since data is self-reported the accuracy is not guaranteed, but regardless of exact numbers unevenness in the days worked in the Pesca Vivencial is undoubtedly a feature of the social landscape.
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Engie, K., Quiroga, D. (2014). The Emergence of Recreational Fishing in the Galápagos Marine Reserve: Adaptation and Complexities. In: Denkinger, J., Vinueza, L. (eds) The Galapagos Marine Reserve. Social and Ecological Interactions in the Galapagos Islands. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02769-2_10
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