Galapagos Nature and Wildlife during the Covid-19 Pandemic

The animals have benefitted from a lower level of visitors. While tourism is carefully managed to minimize the impact on wildlife, it is nonetheless inevitably affected by this activity. Currently quite a few cruises are operating with normalcy, and most businesses and hotels have re-opened since last September. The life within the sea has also had an opportunity to recover. In fact, wildlife was bolstered due to the lack of tourist activity during good part of last year. This standstill in the industry is known as “anthropause”. What this refers to is the slow down or stopping of human activity which came about during the peak of the pandemic, and this is being studied by researchers. For example, a study by researchers at Brown University is looking into how the ecosystem has been altered as a result of fewer tourists. For example, it is thought that shy fish could become bolder, and a change like this could have a significant impact on the wildlife in the marine reserve. The findings of this research could feed back into the organization of diving in the archipelago to minimize impacts on the marine life.

There have been other benefits of few visitors in the archipelago. While some projects were on pause during lockdown, once lockdown was over, there were good opportunities for work to be completed on conservation projects by the national park authorities. Some scientists have also had a better chance to work on their research without the presence of visitors. However, other studies and conservation work has been hampered by the lack of volunteers. Most volunteers had to return to their home countries during the pandemic.