Galapagos History
THE WHALERS
As the nineteenth century began, Spain's world power was declining, South America began to trade with England and France; buccaneers were now considered pirates and no longer welcome. In their place, the waters were soon filled with boats of another kind - whaling ships. This was the age of the Industrial Revolution, and oil was in short supply. The oil that was used at this time did not come from under the ground; it carne from the ocean, courtesy of the whale. After hearing several buccaneers describe the vast quantity of sperm whales off the western coast of South America, the British sent a ship into these waters in 1792 to explore the whaling potential. The captain lames Colnett, spent a considerable time in the Galapagos, making up-to-date charts and naming several islands, including [Lord] Chatham (San Cristobal), [Admiral] Hood (Española), [Admiral] Barrington (Santa Fe), and [Admiral] Jervis (Rabida). Floreana Island was described by Captain Colnett as a good resting spot for whaling crews, providing good anchorage, shelter, a known, dependable water supply, and a seemingly inexhaustible supply of fresh meat - the giant tortoises. Colnett also started the first postal system in the Galapagos, a system that, although unofficial, is still in use today. It is the Barrel Post Office on Floreana Island, and it was used extensively by the whaling ships, which were often at sea for a year or two at a time. The main purpose of Captain Colnett’s visit was to confirm that there was a sufficient supply of whales in the area to justify the development of the industry. Which he did, citing the upwelling activity of the currents that made these waters superb feeding grounds for the sperm whale.
Many of the ships sailed from New England and, were often gone for over a year before the casks were full. As with most industries that tend to make men wealthy, whaling was poorly regulated. What transpired was short-sighted, even from a selfish whaling-oriented point of view. Things got out of hand, with the owners not willing or afraid to control the tough captains and crews required for such dangerous work. As a result, the sperm whales were killed to the point of near-extinction, also killing the very source of income upon which the industry depended. The whalers were soon gone from the archipelago. The same scenario befell the sealers. The fur seals possess a two-layered coat, providing excellent insulation, and were therefore in great demand. Many thousands of fur seals were killed for their skins, and by 1900 the species was almost extinct. The whalers and sealers not only decimated the very animal that supported their business, but the animal that fed them as well. Giant tortoises were easily caught, carted on board, and stacked upside-down in the ships hold. They could be kept alive in this fashion without food or water for several months to a year. The crews thus had a supply of fresh meat, a delicacy in its own right and several times over when compared to the standard fare of salt pork and hardtack. A ship could take between 500-600 tortoises at a time. When you consider that in the first half of the 1800sthere were several hundred whaling ships operating in the general area, in addition to sealing vessels, the number of animals taken are astounding. Reports indicate that over 15,000 tortoises were taken from Floreana alone, resulting in the extinction of the subspecies found only on that island. A similar fate befell the subspecies on Santa Fe and Fernandina. In all, it is estimated that over 200,000 tortoises were taken. The whalers also caused further problems that would be around long after they left in the form of feral non-native animals. Black rats, cats, cattle, donkeys, goats, pigs and dogs are a legacy of whaling and other ships that called by. Sometimes the animals escaped, sometimes in the case of goats and pigs, they were deliberately let free to breed and establish a population that could be used for food by ship wrecked sailors in the future. These feral animals then competed with native fauna for food and habitat.
THE SCIENTISTS
Melville may not have been very impressed by the Enchanted Isles, but there was a group that certainly was - the scientists. Darwin's publications, which voiced the theory of evolution (by the process of natural selection) and chronicled his visit to the Galapagos, were very timely. It was as if the world of science was waiting for someone to speak up. Several scientific expeditions soon made their way to the Galapagos Islands to see the evidence first-hand. The problem was that they took too much of the evidence back with them. In the midst of the whaling era, when the tortoise populations were hovering on the brink of extinction, the scientists took hundreds more.