SHARK CAMPAIGN
Background information on the Galapagos Marine Reserve
Since Darwin, the unique natural wonders of the Galapagos Archipelago have inspired and awed humanity. Due to its geographic location, the Galapagos islands and their surrounding waters encompass a truly unique oceanic environment: a tropical archipelago located among large ocean currents where strong upwelling of cold mineral-rich water occurs. The resulting diversity in biota includes warm water species such as manta rays, corals, sharks, to temperate water species, such as sea lions and kelp, to cold water species, such as fur seals and penguins. Due to the exceptional biodiversity and high degree of marine endemism of the Galapagos Archipelago, they were granted UNESCO World Heritage Site status in 1998.
 Overall, the 144,000 km2 Galapagos Marine Reserve (GMR) is the fourth largest in the world and is one of the few places where sharks are protected (figure 1). The most pressing threats to the GMR are the long term effects of over-fishing, the increasing frequency of El Nino and illegal fishing.
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