Hello all
I went to this last night (on
#GalapagosDay) and it was absolutely brilliant so wanted to say thanks to Celine for telling the list about it and to the
Galapagos Conservation Trust and the Royal Geographical Society for putting it on. I heard someone at the
RGS-IBG mention that the talks were being audio recorded and possibly will be available later (not sure if publicly though, hope so).
Other than Charles Darwin's visit and 'big tortoises' it turns out I was pretty clueless about the Galapagos Islands (didn't really know where* they were, didn't know that people lived there - but about 25,000 do) so this was a useful crash course in getting a sense of the place and what's being done to protect it. I'm a big fan of the Shipfinder app (see also, FlightRadar24 for aircraft) which lets you 'see' where marine vessels are at any given time - they're using something similar on the islands to monitor ships visiting the coastal areas and using the data (velocity, direction) along with videocameras to predict possible activity.
Jorge Carrion's team at the
Galapagos National Park have used this method to catch a few dodgy ships undertaking illegal fishing. His talk was also live-translated from Spanish to English, which was itself quite a remarkable thing to witness.
Ellie Mackay pointed out that the ratio of 'time taken for something to be used' to the 'time it take to break down' highlights that single-use plastic cups are incredibly inefficient (cotton can break down in a couple of months whereas plastic is still around decades later). Sadly the ocean seems to be pretty full of plastic and polystyrene and with every tide it's tipping some of this onto the beaches around the world, including those of the Galapagos. She's been using drones to take aerial shots of beaches (much more efficient than trudging many kilometres of beach). The photos can then be
analysed by humans (Zooniverse citizen science) and machine-learning magic to spot what's plastic and what isn't. We saw a nice little video of the 'pilot study' of a drone in action collecting images.
I also learned that despite weighing a couple of hundred kilos Giant Tortoises are
surprisingly migratory throughout the year making their way from the lowlands to the higher volcanic bits (if the volcano's likely to erupt the
tortoises might get airlifted out to safety!) for a change of seasonal food. Migration activity is an indicator of health and GPS trackers are letting
Diego Ellis-Soto and colleagues use the International Space Station (in particular the
Icarus antenna attached to it earlier this year) to monitor them remotely. Apparently the Icarus antenna "can receive data from more than 15 million transmitters worldwide, anywhere on Earth" so it's probably kept quite busy!
Ellie had a rather brilliant suggestion in response to a question about what tourists can do to help which was that perhaps a plastic 'exit visa' could be implemented - when you want to leave the islands you should have to 'pay' with a kilogram of collected plastic waste from the beaches!
Jo
(psci-com owner)
*having no sense of direction I don't really know where anything is ;)
On Thu, 4 Oct 2018 at 11:42, Celine Gamble <
[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> Good morning all,
>
> My name is Celine and I am currently volunteering for the Galapagos Conservation Trust, helping with their Galapagos Day 2018. The event will take place on Wednesday 10 October from 6pm at the Royal Geographical Society, London.
>
> This year we will be exploring the exciting conservation breakthroughs and innovations happening in the Galapagos Islands. Our speakers will give insights into the cutting-edge science and technology that is helping us to conserve the unique wildlife and habitats of Galapagos.
>
> We are very pleased to say that Dr Jorge Carrion, Director of the Galapagos National Park, will be talking about the technology they use to safeguard the Galapagos Marine Reserve from detrimental activities such as illegal fishing.
>
> You will also hear from Ellie Mackay, Mission Director of The Plastic Tide. This summer Ellie joined GCT Chief Executive Sharon Johnson, and our partners from the Galapagos Science Center and the Galapagos National Park, to trial plastic surveys using drones. She will explain how this state of the art technology will be used in the fight against plastic pollution across the Archipelago.
>
> Also speaking will be Diego Ellis Soto from the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, who works with the Galapagos Tortoise Movement Ecology Programme (GTMEP). He will be talking about how cutting-edge satellite tags and the International Space Station are helping conservationists to track endangered species, including newly emerged Galapagos giant tortoise hatchlings, in near real-time.
>
> In addition to our speakers, there will be a drinks reception and photography displays showcasing our 2018 photography competition, as well as photographs from Falmouth University students' recent trip to Galapagos. Tickets are priced at £30 or £15 for students. For full information and tickets, please see our event listing here:
galapagosconservation.org.uk/event_listings/galapagos-day-2018/>
> As this is an awareness-raising event, we are keen to expand our guest list to outside of our current membership and supporters to educate as many people about these incredible Islands and their wildlife. As such, we would be most grateful if you could share this event with anyone you think might be interested in attending. Please find our event flyer here :
galapagosconservation.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Fishing-Galapagos-Day-Post-card.png>
> Any help you could offer with this would be much appreciated and hopefully see you next week.
>
> Kind regards,
> Celine Gamble
>
> To purchase tickets, please follow this link:
galapagosconservation.charitycheckout.co.uk/cf/621/Galapagos-Day-2018#!/>
>
galapagosconservation.org.uk |
discoveringgalapagos.org.uk |
descubriendogalapagos.ec>
