3. Techniques need to be developed for production of commercial juvenile sea
cucumbers (i.e. I. fuscus), and sea urchins (i.e. T. depressus) through laboratory
cultures for aquaculture and/or repopulation.
4. A better understanding of the social and political aspect of the sea cucumber
fishery is required. A key external stakeholder in the overexploitation of sea
cucumbers in Galápagos is the Asian market. Imaginative solutions are required
in order to escape the current situation, whereby social pressure forces the
fishery to open after the slightest hint of recovery. This jeopardizes both the
long term recovery of the resource as well as the economic stability of the
fishers.
6.6.4 Threats
1. Impacts can be grouped into six main categories: (a) fishery exploitation; (b)
global climate change; (c) invasions of exotic species; (d) pollution; and (e) loss
of habitat due to increased human population of the coastal zones both in
Ecuador mainland and in the Galápagos Islands.
2. The collateral effects of the sea cucumber fishery in the Galápagos Islands are
not fully understood. What is the damage to biodiversity of illegal fishing
camps on pristine islands? To what extent does the presence of a licensed sea
cucumber merchant in the islands open a door for the exploitation of other
protected species such as sea horses, sharks and sea lions? Socially and economically, who has really benefited from this fishery?
3. Future research should address the following main questions considering the
immune response of two sea urchins species: E. vanbrunti (at the mainland) and
E. galapagensis (at the Galápagos Islands) to establish the exact chain of
causation that could kill different sea animals after low-level oil contamination,
or from global warming change (as was suggested by Romero and Wikelsky
2002). Is the immune response playing a direct role like bio-predictors under a
stress response?
Acknowledgments We would like to express our thanks to Manuel Cruz (formerly at the
Instituto Oceanográfico de la Armada del Ecuador), Soledad Luna, Kate Clark and Priscilla
Martínez (Instituto Ecuatoriano NAZCA de Investigaciones Marinas), Luis Molina (Charles
Darwin Foundation, CDF), and Manuel Burgos (Universidad de Especialidades Espíritu Santo,
UEES) for their assistance. We also thank Angel Chiriboga, Xavier Romero, and CDF for
photographical material included in this manuscript.
6 Echinoderms of Ecuador
223
cucumbers (i.e. I. fuscus), and sea urchins (i.e. T. depressus) through laboratory
cultures for aquaculture and/or repopulation.
4. A better understanding of the social and political aspect of the sea cucumber
fishery is required. A key external stakeholder in the overexploitation of sea
cucumbers in Galápagos is the Asian market. Imaginative solutions are required
in order to escape the current situation, whereby social pressure forces the
fishery to open after the slightest hint of recovery. This jeopardizes both the
long term recovery of the resource as well as the economic stability of the
fishers.
6.6.4 Threats
1. Impacts can be grouped into six main categories: (a) fishery exploitation; (b)
global climate change; (c) invasions of exotic species; (d) pollution; and (e) loss
of habitat due to increased human population of the coastal zones both in
Ecuador mainland and in the Galápagos Islands.
2. The collateral effects of the sea cucumber fishery in the Galápagos Islands are
not fully understood. What is the damage to biodiversity of illegal fishing
camps on pristine islands? To what extent does the presence of a licensed sea
cucumber merchant in the islands open a door for the exploitation of other
protected species such as sea horses, sharks and sea lions? Socially and economically, who has really benefited from this fishery?
3. Future research should address the following main questions considering the
immune response of two sea urchins species: E. vanbrunti (at the mainland) and
E. galapagensis (at the Galápagos Islands) to establish the exact chain of
causation that could kill different sea animals after low-level oil contamination,
or from global warming change (as was suggested by Romero and Wikelsky
2002). Is the immune response playing a direct role like bio-predictors under a
stress response?
Acknowledgments We would like to express our thanks to Manuel Cruz (formerly at the
Instituto Oceanográfico de la Armada del Ecuador), Soledad Luna, Kate Clark and Priscilla
Martínez (Instituto Ecuatoriano NAZCA de Investigaciones Marinas), Luis Molina (Charles
Darwin Foundation, CDF), and Manuel Burgos (Universidad de Especialidades Espíritu Santo,
UEES) for their assistance. We also thank Angel Chiriboga, Xavier Romero, and CDF for
photographical material included in this manuscript.
6 Echinoderms of Ecuador
223