Pescado Vivencial

Yesterday I went out on a fishing expedition with one of the local Galapageno fisherman.  The whole class went out with fishermen, but because the local boats are so small, it was 6 of us to a boat.  My boat was the Kelly.  Not a terribly Ecuadorian name, but she was named after the granddaughter of our captain, Erwin.  From  the harbor, we headed out to the 5 Fingers, a rock formation a few kilometers from the island, we deploy our lines.    While we were on the boat, we used the 2 traditional means of fishing.  The first was long-lining. Using 2 fishing rods and 2 other lines tied to the back of the boat, all baited with artificial lures, we dropped 4 lines behind the boat, slowly driving around to keep them all as far behind the boat as possible.  Erwin said the 4 ranged from 25 to 40 meters behind the boat, and that this method was best for catching open water fish like tuna & wahoo.  These pelagic fish are fast and hungry, and will go after anything that moves, meaning that we could use artificially lures instead of live bait.

the Kelly, with Erwin at the helm

the five fingers

Despite trawling like this for over and hour and a half, up and down the coast of the island, we had no luck, and decided to switch to the second method of fishing.  For this, we stopped the boat off of La Loberia, with a hundred yards or so between us and the rocky shore.  Since we were close, the sea was pretty choppy, and you could see the dark spots in the water where there were rocks below.  The Kelly had a depth gauge, so we new that we wouldn't run aground- the shallowest we went was 9 meters, which left the hull plenty of room.  Instead of moving the boat, Erwin kept it in place, and we dropped baited lines off the side.  Now we were going for the real prize:  Bacalao, grouper.  Since these are more selective fish, we baited the lines with hunks of meat, carved from a smaller fish we brought with us.  Erwin would drop the line down and jerk it so the bait would bob and attract a fish, and once he felt a bit, he'd pass the rod to one of us to bring the fish in.  The first thing we caught was a famed bacalao- but it was too small, and we threw it back into the sea.  From then, we ended up catching a lot of fish- but nothing that was good to eat, so it all went back into the waves, which was alright with me.  We all caught at least 1 fish- I landed a gringo and a red mexican hog fish.  Gringos are greenish fish with red bellies- they get their name because their belly is the same color as all the sun-burnt tourists.  The hog fish was about a foot and a half long, and the biggest fish of the day, with a exception: a galapagos shark.

Mackenzie with a zapatia

edwin captures fish with his mere gaze

Erwin knew immediately that he had hooked a shark- he told us that most fish dive deep when they're hooked, trying to escape being caught, but sharks swim horizontally away from the boat.  Since he knew it was a shark, he reeled it in.  Soon, the four foot shark was beside the boat, and we all got a good look at it. Sharks are illegal to catch in the Galapagos, and since he (for obvious reasons) couldn't bring it onboard to pull the hook out of it's mouth, he cut the line and let it swim free.   In the end, we came home without any fish, but we all had a great time on the water.  Last night, we all went to a restaurant together and ate dinner with Erwin.

right after erwin cut the shark free

returning to harbor

La Loberia Cliffs

It's been a little bit since I actually hiked out to the cliffs at La Loberia, but I figure photos are always appreciated.   Past La Loberia, the sheltered bay with massive waves further out, a trail cuts across the rocky beach and the scrubby grass behind it.  And by "rocky beach," I really mean "rocky."  There's approximately 0 sand, so it's a bit of a trek to cross the rough, black basalt, even though the distance isn't that far.  I had to constantly watch my steps to ensure I did smash a toe into a rock or twist an ankle (there's not a whole lot of ankle protection in chacos).  After the rocks, there was a stretch of similar terrain further back from the shore- the rocks were still there, but surrounded by grass and dirt.  After all the level walking, I finally reached the uphill section to the top of the cliffs.  There were a couple small walls, a couple meters high, and some steep scrambles, but nothing too terrible.  At the top of the rise, it was an easy walk over the flat surface (the unbroken top of some 2-million year old lava flow) to the edge, where the rock dropped away and only the sky, wheeling frigate birds, and crashing waves was before me.  

waves crashing to the right of the point

birds on the cliffs

From the main point of the cliffs, they wall is concave to the left, create a walled-pool where breaking waves congregate to surge over the broken rocks at the water line.  The dark blue of the Pacific turns a little lighter as it approaches shore, then cuts to white from all the froth below the cliffs.  A group of turtles was riding the waves  just beyond the frothy zone, rising up as the waves rush along the surface, then sinking back down as the wave passes.  The cliffs are also a major nesting ground for the sea birds of the islands.  A lone pelican perched at the top of the cliffs, and blue-footed boobies and frigate birds nested on the surface, staining the ledges white.  The boobies were mostly sedentary, but many of the frigate birds, las frigatas wheeled overhead, swooping low over the top of the cliff, just a few feet above me, before turning back over the ocean or to continue over me to the far side of the arch to nest on the rocks.  It looked like the pecking order had the frigate birds at the top- a couple times a saw una frigata swoop down to a ledge where a boobie was perched, and the boobie always left to search for a new perch while the frigate bird claimed the stolen ledge.

the wave going out

New Roommate

Last night I got yet another new roommate:

this guy

In the house, there's no shortage of all kinds of critters roaming around.  Because the climate is so balmy, there's no need to have sealed doors and windows, so tons of animals make their way into the house.  A big gecko roams around the kitchen, and moths flutter around the house.  Occasionally a lava lizard will be sunning on the front stoop, and will run under the door inside when I walk up.  And this little guy certainly isn't the first gecko I've had in my room, but he's certainly the smallest.  But I'm glad to have him- there are plenty of red ants and small moths about for him to chomp on. 

Besides my new cold blooded friend, I have plenty of other housemates.  In addition to Sonia & Ivan, my host mum and brother, I've got Lena & Johanna, 2 german grad students studying the fisheries, Tessa & Vivian, 2 dutch volunteers here for a few months, Carlos, Lena's husband, and Mario, who just moved in, and I'm not sure yet what he's doing here.  All in all, between the house and the mini-hotel on the property, things are quite full! 

On Friday, I returned from a week of class on Santa Cruz, the most populous of the Galapagos Islands.  While the majority of the field trips we took over the week were geared towards the native/invasive plants class that all the kids in the Ecology/Evolution track are taking, everyone else seemed to join in on them.  Monday we arrived in the afternoon, after a final in the morning at GAIAS.  Unlike out spring break trip, all of us are staying at one hotel- Lobo Del Mar, right on the harbor.  I think it's safe to say I ended up in the best room of the place- at the back of the hotel's 3rd floor, opening onto a big balcony that overlooked the harbor, which we shared with a couple other rooms. 

 The next morning, we went to the Charles Darwin Foundation, one of, if not the, most iconic NGO on the islands.  We started the day listening to a panel of presenters- people who worked at the Foundation and told us about what they're involved with in the conservation of the park.  The two most interesting were on fishing and the mangrove finches.  Because of the population bloom on the island, the exploitation of the waters has increased dramatically, especially in the over-exploitation of sea cucumbers, which are highly sought-after in Asian markets.  The general consensus is that not enough is being done to make legislation to protect the fisheries, let alone enforce the legislation already in place.  The presentation on the mangrove finch was also interesting because it discussed the most endangered bird on the islands.  With fewer than 100 left in only 1 isolated colony on Isabela, the population is in grave danger of habitat destruction or a genetic bottleneck.  So far, efforts to combat invasive rats that raid nests have been successful, but attempts to relocate part of the population to start a second colony have failed.  The birds they moved simply flew back to the original colony, covering more distance than the researchers though possible.  

the loneliest of reptiles

After the presentations, we went to meet the single most iconic animal in the history of conservation:  Lonesome George.  The last of his species, the giant tortoises of Pinta Island will die with him.  In the 70s, after goats ravaged the landscape of that island, George was the only tortoise park rangers could find, and he was brought to Santa Cruz for his protection.  Since then, mating efforts with other species of giant tortoises have been unsuccessful.  When we saw him, he was at the back of his enclosure, almost out of view and motionless as we watched.

The next day, we traveled to Floreana, the smallest of the inhabited islands, with only 120 inhabitants, where we travelled to the highlands to  study the flora there, and check out an enclosure of giant tortoises there, where they were feeding.  It was a big group of them- 20 in total, spread between two feeding areas, where leafy vegetation was piled high.    The next day, we did a similar trip to the highlands of Santa Cruz, where there were no tortoises, but the views of hte island were better.  After hiking to the summit of a small mountain, surrounded by miconia (an endemic plant), ferns, and invasive red quinine, we could stand on the small volcanic cone and see all sides of the island- from the town in the south, Isabela far to the east, and Baltra, the nearby island with the main airport, directly to the north.  On the way down, it rained heavily the whole way, and our professor gave us plenty of amusement as he charged through puddles, splashing all of us, and yelling that his artificial knee made him RoboCop.

me with my homeboys

a mighty beast of the island

me in the natural grotto the first settlers of Floreana used as a goat pen

The morning of our last day on the island was free, before we returned to San Cristobal in the afternoon.  A group of us journeyed to Tortuga Bay, the closest beach to the town of Puerto Ayora, though it was still a 45 minute walk away- far by island standards.  After hiking the trail through coastal forest, we entered the first beach- a long expanse of sand, sea on the left, sand dunes on the right, roped off to preserve sea turtle breeding area.  All in all, it looked just like a beach on the NC coast.  After a long walk to the end of the beach (past baby sharks swimming in the shallows!  The coolest wildlife I saw that day), we reached Tortuga Bay, a calm, sheltered bay, expanding out like a lake.  The close end had a narrow beach, with fine grained white sand that extended into the water- it was the first beach without at least some volcanic rock on the bottom!  The side closer to the ocean had massive opuntia cacti growing, while the rest of it was ringed by mangroves.

 a statue carved by the Wittmer family when they colonized Floreana, in the 20s

Matthew Safford, Professional Lizard Rangler

As of last week, I've been helping one of the professors from USFQ do research on lava lizards, Microlophus albemarlensis, the little guys that are constantly scurrying over the lava flows and side walks in town.  The research is to try and study their territoriality, and what kinds of behavior they exhibit and why.  The rough idea is that each male has a harem of several females and a large territory, and that both he and the females both work to guard the territory.  But our professor is questioning how much work males put into defense, and if they leave most of the work to females.  

Right now, we're finishing up tagging lizards- for the sake of building a knowledge base, we only study behavior in lizards that we've measured, so when we catch a lizard, we paint it with 2 dots (white =0, red = 1, blue =2), so that each lizard has a unique 3 number name.  To catch them, we have fishing line tied to sticks, with a noose tied in the end of the line.  We sneak up behind the lizard, and try and drop the noose over his/her head and pull it taught.  Once we catch them, we can hold them and loosen the noose.  However, all of that is a lot harder than it looks:  they're really fast, are suspicious of the noose, and over rough terrain can move much more easily than us humans.  

 pregnant femal, as shown by the red under her chin, which females only develop after they'e mated

Now that we've tagged some lizards, we've started on studying their behavior- one major thing we observe is the headbobs they make: when they make them, how long, and if we can tell, why.  Both sexes make the bobs, and it seems like it's a multipurpose gesture- males bob at females, the lizards bob at us when we get to close, and it seems like they always bob before they move.  A common movement for them is to bob for a second, dart a foot or 2, look around, bob again, and then move again.  Our professor isn't only the island right now, so while it's harder to ask him about what we see, it gives us a lot of autonomy to determine when to go out, and in seeing the lizards in the National Park.  We have 2 observation areas set up, each 20 x 20 meters.  One is right behind the univeristy, while the other is in the National Park, a 5 minute walk off trail into the bush.  

males have well defined grey and yellow bands, and a darker color pattern than the females

Blackberry eradication

For my native & invasive plants class, I'm working with a classmate on a class project to make a brief documentary on invasive plants of the island.  Ethan and I have decided to focus on mora, blackberries, which are invasive on the island and causing a lot of ecological damage.  Fast growing, they are easily spread by the Darwin's finches, one of the most iconic Galapagos animals.   Mora grows quickly so that it can overshadow native plants, blocking their access to sunlight and eventually smothering them.  On friday for class we took a trip to the highlands of the island, first stopping at the Cafetal, the largest coffee plantation on the island.  Almost everything on the plantation is introduced, from the overshadowing Spanish Cedar, guava, gauyava, and the coffee itself.  Thankfully, coffee is a labor intensive plant, and can't survive in the wild well enough to take over the island.   Since the coffee season isn't til August, there was only a skeleton crew running the plantation, be it was really neat to see all of the machinery used to separate the bean from the flesh of the fruit.

Afterwards, we took the taxis further up the highlands, to el Junco, a pond in an old caldera- the only source of freshwater on the island.  From there, we unloaded bikes and road down the mountains back to Puerto Baqurezo, making stops along the way to check different plants, especially invasive one, on the way down.  Along the road, the 3 main invasive plants were moras (blackberries), rose apple, and guava.  All three are good dispersers because of their ability to spread easily with small seeds, and all three are popular with local birds and animals.  The ride down was fun, though a little treacherous for all the gravel on the road, something Patrick learned about the hard way, whipping out, and have to get driven to the hospital to be bandaged up.

This afternoon, Ethan and I travelled to the highlands again, this time with a trio of rangers from the Parque Nacional, who were going up to do some mora eradication. We drove back to el Junco, then filmed the rangers as they used machetes to hack down the thick forest of mora growing beside the road.  A small group of foreign volunteers was helping them in their task.  Alas, for lack of long sleeves and machetes (shouldn't have left mine at home!), we couldn't join in the carnage, so we filmed and interviewed on of the rangers before planning our documentary.