This has led fishers to work within an increasingly competitive environment, encouraging risk seeking behaviors, and creating dangerous work conditions. For example, the decline in spiny lobster abundance in the shallow waters around Galapagos has encouraged fishers to dive at night, deeper and for longer periods in order to sustain or increase their catch rates. As a result, the number of fishers with decompression

sickness has increased during the last decade [14]. In contrast to the above negative outcomes, a preliminary study suggests partial benefits associated with marine zoning in the Galapagos. According to [33], the proportion of larger individuals of groupers (Mycteroperca olfax), endemic sea basses (Paralabrax albomaculatus) and Galapagos grunts (Orthoprostis forbesi) is significantly higher in no-take zones in comparison with fishing zones. This trend has been observed in particular areas where the level of protection from fishing is higher,

see more whether due to high levels of tourism and/or such areas being near to the enforcement authority’s selleck chemical outposts [33]. The marine zoning scheme represents undoubtedly the best effort undertaken to date to manage the GMR through an EBSM approach. However, application of EBSM in the GMR, through marine zoning, has been severely limited by lack of effective enforcement and a high rate of non-compliance by fishers, who consider fisheries management measures, including no-take zones, as illegitimate [34]. As noted above, the most important shellfisheries of the GMR, the sea cucumber fishery (Isostichopus fuscus) and the spiny lobster fisheries (Panulirus penicillatus and P. gracilis), show signs of overexploitation [31]. The steady expansion of tourism activity in the archipelago, jointly with the carrying out of illegal sport-fishing operations, are generating new conflicts between local tourism and fishing sectors (E. Naula and M. Casafont, Galapagos National Park, Galapagos, Ecuador; personal communication). Furthermore, a recent study shows that the current GMR’s marine zoning design is not providing enough protection to several Resveratrol threatened species and key

biodiversity areas [18]. These problems with EBSM have contributed to a lack of credibility and legitimacy concerning what could be potentially a valuable tool to co-manage the GMR’s fisheries. In this section, such problems are examined from the perspective of the five basic components essential to successful marine management, including EBSM, as outlined earlier in the paper: effective planning, monitoring, implementation, evaluation and adaptation. The GMR’s marine zoning system was created without a strategic and integrated long-term plan-based approach. It is clear that the consensus-based approach used during the planning phase focused mainly on determining no-take zones without considering the “bigger picture” needed to adopt an EBSM in a marine protected area (MPA: [35]).