Experiential artisanal fishing is an alternative activity whereby artisanal fishermen, using their regular working infrastructure (boat and gear), offers visitors the opportunity to know their culture, lifestyle and fishing experience.

Executive Decree No.014 prohibits Sport fishing in the Galapagos Marine Reserve, as is by published in the Official Register No. 564.

Instead, experiential artisanal fishing has been developed and approved, which is a demonstrative mode of fishing with a focus on tourism. In it, tourists accompany the fisherman to see, firsthand, the traditional art of fishing in the Galapagos.

	Sport fishing in Galapagos is prohibited. Instead, you can participate in experiential artisanal fishing, a touristic alternative to fishing.

This alternative has the main objective of providing a profitable alternative to the Galapagos fishing industry, with less impact to the ecosystems in that catch volumes are limited to the demonstration of the activity.

The Directorate of the Galapagos National Park has promoted this activity, intended only for artisanal fishermen, achieving a reduced fishing effort.

To date, over 50 local families depend on this alternative to fishing. Work continues on promoting this activity and promoting training and policy, friendly to the marine environment.

There is also an experiential artisanal fishing for diving, which involves making dives to show visitors the techniques used in capture of species, authorized by the fishing calendar, like the spiny lobster.

All specimens caught during experiential artisanal fish diving will be released. During lobster season, the catch limit is set to two fish per boat maximum, which should meet regulatory capture of this species.

	Pelicans in Puerto Ayora impatiently wait the processing of newly arrived catch from the sea.

The Directorate of the Galapagos National Park is responsible for the delivery of fishing permits for boats. There are currently a total of 24 vessels with an average of 3 PARMA licensed fishermen on board.

The monitoring activity is done through blogs in which fisherman include the number of departures, number of passengers, origin, benefits to the fisherman (and indirect benefits for local people), catch, the passenger satisfaction levels, species caught, weight, size, fishing site, depth, etc..

In addition, fishermen are required to attend trainings that are given in the areas of:

• Passenger quality service
• Management Aspects of the GMR
• Techniques for release of marine organisms
• Species identification

 AUTHORIZED BOATS FOR EXPERIENTIAL ARTISANAL FISHING

This program has counted on the support of:

WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature), is the largest conservation organization in the world, founded in Morges, Switzerland, with presence in over 90 countries.