Galapagos Island & Whalers

In 1790 when the pirates were replaced by the whalers, Captain James Colnett was placed in charge to investigate about the possibility to establish a whaling station in the South Pacific. He visited the islands in 1793 and 1794, and that is how he develop the first detailed map of the islands. Also he established the first "Barrel Post" that was used by whalers to send their letters to England.

While the whalers start arriving to the islands, they began to hunt down turtles, birds, iguanas and sea lions that were desirable because of its precious skin. The whalers, though, were much more numerous than the pirates had been and some races of tortoises quickly became extinct. As many as 200,000 galapagos tortoises may have been taken over the course of the 19th century. Also galapagos fur seals were hunted down because of their precious skin and they were almost eliminated, although in these days they have recovered from extinction.

In 1813, when the United States, Great Britain and France went to war, the US fleet destroyed the English Whalers fleet of the Galapagos islands. At the same time the captain of the expedition, Captain David Porter, made the first precise registrations of the islands, registering the eruption of Floreana Volcano in 1813, been this the first and only historic fact about a volcanic eruption.

When Captain Porter anchor at James Bay, he set free some goats so they could graze near the shore. However few days later the goats disappeared into the island and never seen then. Captain Porter didn't had the intention of leaving the goats in the island, but in the upcoming years they were set free on purpose to provide a permanent source of meat for the navigators. These goats reproduce themselves and eventually reach a number of about 100 000, desolating Santiago's Island native flora and as well as other islands. Also they threat the extinction of native animals such as the galapagos giant turtles. Today these introduced species are the main threat for the fauna and flora of Galapagos.

The famous author Herman Melville, visited the islands and he wrote a book about it named The Enchanted, which was published in 1854, the title referred to the name given to the islands by pirates and whalers, "Las Islas Encantadas".

The 19 th Century The end of Galapagos Islands animals.

In 1832 the Galapagos Islands were claimed by the young Republic of Ecuador located 1000 kilometers east from the islands, naming them "Archipielago del Ecuador". In 1892 they are renamed "Archipielago de Colon" in honor to Christopher Columbus and the 400 anniversary of the discovery of America. This name stays as the official name of the islands although they are well known as Galapagos.

In 1833 the Ecuadorian government provide a concession to Jose Villamil, a Frenchman who came from Louisiana, who established the first permanent human settlement in the Galapagos. In Floreana Island he cultivated fruits and vegetables, and raised cows, pigs and goats.

At the time Charles Darwin visited the galapagos islands in 1835, the turtles almost disappeared from Floreana Island. Darwin found around 250 people living on the island, been the turtles there main source of fresh meat.

It is well known that ships used to carry off up to 700 turtles in a single voyage, and once a single ship hunted down 200 turtles in just one day. By the year 1846 when Villamil's colony was abandoned, Berthold Seeman, a naturalist on board the HMS Pandora, reported that in Floreana Island there didn't exist any turtles, but that there were 200 livestock. Wild dogs roamed around the island and sometimes they even attacked the visitors. Also in the islands of Santa Fe and Rabida the turtles were extinguished in the 19 th century.