Galapagos Islands hide much more marine life than thought

If the diverse fauna and flora of the Galapagos Islands has been awe-inspiring, fired your imagination and motivated you to plan a trip to this extraordinary corner of the world, you need to revise your knowledge. It turns out that the waters around the Galapagos hide much more…

Scientists have recently discovered that there are many more non-endemic species in the Galapagos Islands than everyone had previously thought. The trade journal Aquatic Invasions published a study in which 53 non-native marine animal species were recorded as being on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

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48 of the 53 (90.6%) species have recently been reported or have been newly identified. Scientists say most of these were likely brought to the area by ships from around the world.

“Although we assume that most, if not all, of the many thousands of ships arriving in the Galapagos Islands since 1500 had marine animals and plants attached to their hulls, we hypothesise that the islands’ general lack of extensive shoreline structures (in the form of wharves, docks, pilings and buoys) until the last half of the 20th century may have limited extensive colonisation by new species.”

The increasing number of wharves and docks being built on the islands, may be one of the reasons for the increase in new species of creatures that have not previously been found in the area.

The full report can be found on here.

Photo: wikipedia.org CC BY 2.0
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