Galápagos

Hannah Stitfall’s been getting updates from onboard the Arctic Sunrise, one of Greenpeace’s research ships, since the beginning of the series, from Panama where it set sail out into the Galápagos Islands marine reserve.

We heard as it crossed the equator, and we’ve learnt about the pioneering research the scientists and volunteers have already done on seamounts in the area. And now, they’ve finally anchored and we’re joining them onboard for an episode all about Galápagos.

You’ll meet Sophie Cooke the expedition lead; Captain Mike, the man behind the wheel; Andrea Vera, an Ecuadorian scientist; and Hannah is lucky enough to be able to catch up with Spanish actress Alba Flores (from Netflix’s Money Heist), who’s just got back home after spending a week onboard.

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Usnea (Intro):
Hello, my name is Usnea and we are currently on our ship the Arctic Sunrise in the Galápagos Islands.

Hannah Stitfall:
We’ve been tracking the voyage of the Arctic Sunrise since the beginning of this series from Panama where it set sail, out into the Pacific Ocean. We were listening when it crossed the equator.

Usnea (Intro):
Really, really, really special and a beautiful thing to be a part of. And so we crossed last night at 01:30 in the morning.

Hannah Stitfall:
And we’ve heard about the pioneering research they’ve already done on sea mounts in the waters there.

Andrea Vera (Intro):
This is what sets the migratory route for some critically endangered species.

Hannah Stitfall:
But Usnea is far from the only person on the ship. They’re about 30 people, scientists, volunteers, first mates, cooks, cameraman, comms people; all crucial in gathering the research and sharing it with the outside world.

I’m Hannah Stitfall. And today, we’re joining them on board, ben episode all about the Galápagos.

Sophie Cooke (Intro):
It’s been absolutely amazing to see the richness and diversity of marine life here. Every time you go out on deck, you see something.

Hannah Stitfall:
This is Oceans: Life Under Water, Episode 10.

Usnea:
Here we are on board the Arctic Sunrise. And our plan is to walk around the ship and meet some of the amazing people that work here.

Hannah Stitfall:
The first person you’re going to meet is Sophie Cook. Sophie’s a Greenpeace campaigner and is the leader of this particular expedition. She and Usnea got chatting about how the expedition came about.

Usnea:
So I have the pleasure of being here with Sophie Cook, who is our expedition lead for this awesome adventure we’re on. Sophie, can you tell us a bit about why we are in the Galápagos? What are we doing here?

Sophie Cooke:
A year ago, we won the global ocean treaty. And as part of that we wanted to show people what ocean protection can be. And what is more iconic and well known globally from marine reserves than here at this amazing, amazing place that Galápagos Islands. And it has totally been that. The things that we have seen and the species and just the amount of life in the water has been absolutely, overwhelmingly wonderful.

Usnea:
And Sophie Can you tell us a bit about the work that we’re digging into here?

Sophie Cooke:
On the way here we came through the high seas and visited to sea mounts. And so these are underwater volcanoes that can be aeons old but they haven’t reached the surface. And sea mounts are really important biodiversity hotspots, especially for far from land. Migratory species use these as stepping stones between the areas of land even when you’re going 1000s of miles across the ocean. These are like the navigation waypoints, which is very cool. And so we took environmental eDNA samples, and so that’s like tiny bits of skin and faeces that animals drop, we can pick that up in the water and use that information to know what’s come by. And then we’ve also been using the BRUVs, which are baited underwater cameras that we put in the water at two hours at a time and see which species are attracted there. There were blue sharks out at the remote seamounts in the high seas, showing that they’re using these waypoints to the land. There is a really key sea mount here, that’s an oceanic seamount called paramount. And all the way on the way here where we were looking for thresher sharks and hadn’t seen them. And we saw them at paramount, which was really fantastic and very exciting for a lot of people on board.

Usnea:
Can you tell us a bit about the shark tagging and why we’re so excited and involved in this.

Sophie Cooke:
We are working with Dr. Alex Hearn and his team. And they have been tagging sharks in this region for 20 years. And their work was a significant direct part of a brand new marine reserve within the Galápagos economic exclusion zone. So the 200 miles around Galápagos, there was an extra new reserve two years ago that 60,000 square kilometres, so it’s absolutely massive and that has, half of it is no fishing at all. And then the other half is no long lines, which are the biggest threat to sharks. So we are helping continue that work. The more understanding we have of these migratory species, the more we can understand where to focus protection on.

Usnea:
We are currently drifting not too far away from the Arctic Sunrise over a sea mount and have just put in some lures. It’s a hopeful plan this morning.

Sophie Cooke:
At first things were really slow. We haven’t tagged as many sharks as we expected to. But we instead have found an exciting new discovery that we weren’t expecting. And that is the bay that we were anchoring in for the second week to do this work. We were seeing these juvenile, smooth hammerheads. There have been a few sightings in the Galápagos, but really no substantial evidence that they were here.

Crew member:
Shark on board. We’ve got a total length… (speaking Spanish)

Sophie Cooke:
…And because we’re finding juveniles, it looks like are they using that area as a nursery?

Crew member:
Oh, yeah. Okay, got it. Okay.

Usnea:
So we if we zoom out to look at oceans globally, what is the current situation right now in terms of protections.

Sophie Cooke:
Looking at the high seas, so this is the areas beyond 200 miles from any land, there is so little protection out there. There are a few designated marine protected areas. Some of them are in Antarctica. There’s some in the North Atlantic, but those are very much paper parks. I’ve been in, in a large MPA in the North Atlantic, with industrial fishing vessels, pulling sharks out of the ocean, you know, these should have real protection, these marine protected areas, these MPAs, they should be protecting these places from industrial fishing. We can’t be calling a place protected when their seas can still be stripped of all their life. So now we have this perfect opportunity where we can protect these places. We’ve got the global ocean treaty, we need to put pressure on them to make sure that fishing, industrial fishing, deep sea mining are all parts of these protections there and that we have real marine protected areas out there.

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Hannah Stitfall:
The next person you’ll meet is Ecuadorian scientist Andrea Vera. Usnea had a chat with her during a shark tracking expedition to hear more about why the Galápagos Islands are such a unique place ecologically.

Andrea Vera:
My name is Andrea Vera. I’m from Ecuador. I’m 25 years old. And I’m currently working with an NGO called Miramar which is a network of scientific researchers in the marine area. And we study older, mainly migratory species along the eastern tropical Pacific to try to make different conservation actions along this area.

Usnea:
Can you tell us a little bit about what makes this place so special? And your connection to it?

Andrea Vera:
What I particularly love about Galápagos is that right when you arrive here, we’ll see these amazing volcanic rock However, it’s also like, surrounded by ocean. So there are places for instance, in Isabela or in north where you’re going to see a volcanic rock, you’re going to see a penguin, a cactus, and you have the ocean. So it’s a pretty like unique environment. Will you have these amazing diversity of species from sharks, marine mammals, reptiles, birds, in the particular thing is that it’s an island, we have so many species that are endemic to the area. So you are not going to see these species anywhere else rather than just here in the Galápagos.

Usnea:
Andrea, can you perhaps highlight some of the most like iconic endemic species here?

Andrea Vera:
Yeah, for sure. Well, you can see the marine iguanas, which are pretty unique. There are no other marine iguanas that feed from algae. And also we have the penguins, the Galápagos penguins, which they’re actually the second smallest penguins from all the penguins, that’s really cool. We also have the Galápagos sea lions. Let’s not forget about the Galápagos sharks, just like from here. While also another like unique and pretty amazing species that we can find here; the hammerheads, whale sharks. Yeah, and lots of seabirds. Some of them are also endemic from here.

Usnea:
And we’re here shark tagging, like what is so unique about this species? What’s so special about these sharks here in Galápagos?

Andrea Vera:
Well, the most important thing about sharks in Galápagos is that we have lots of them and different species of them. So mainly sharks, they come here to the Galápagos to reproduce to feed also to grow. And some of them even not, like have babies here in the Galápagos. And so it’s an oceanic Island. It’s one of the like, the main points where that these highly migratory sharks come in throughout their way. So we have that like this really, really interesting like migratory pathway here in the Pacific. And Galápagos is one of the hot spots for this species, yes.

Usnea:
And, Andrea, can you share with us your role in this expedition that we’re currently on?

Andrea Vera:
Yeah, sure. So with my working partner Daniel, we’re in charge of carrying out the BRUVs, which are baited remote underwater video systems. So basically, is like imagine our triangle with two GoPro cameras in the sides, and we have some bait in the middle. So the idea is try to capture the different species that are around the area and that are attracted to the bait in these like 10 metre from the surface to the bottom of the ocean. So we probably will try to see if we’ve confined and we can see like different species of sharks for instance, we have actually seen some silkies, some hammerheads, some tuna we have also seen and other species of fish, which has been really interesting. So we try to describe the biodiversity and also like characterise the areas, for instance how many sharks do we see how many individuals of one especially do we see in each area. Today, my main job is to be like the logger. So I’m going to be taking notes about like the time, know which species it is, the sex, we’re gonna take some measurements like the total length, the fin length, the girth. And also take this measurement about like the latitude longitude, and the tag ID.

Usnea:
And what is your favourite ocean animal.

Andrea Vera:
My favourite definitely has to be the whale shark. Like the first time we get to swim with one. They’re like a particular animal because even though they are sharks, they have like this like charismatic look like their eyes. They’re like mammals, they’re like really warm. And I don’t know, like, you just want to hug them. I don’t know, they’re really interesting. And I really love the fact that this parts they have in their body they’re like, or fingerprints that they are unique from each individual. And there are a lot of like mysteries and things that we don’t know about them that makes them amazingly mysterious.

Usnea:
We’ve talked a bit about what’s so awesome about the Galápagos and special here. Can you tell us about some of the threats Galápagos, and its species, endemic and not, are facing here?

Andrea Vera:
Well, one of them main threats, I would say would be the plastics. If you can see there are parts of Galápagos that people never get there. However, you end up watching a lot of trash in actually, during our expedition here in open ocean, I’ve seen some plastic bottles in the ocean, some plastic garbage and everything. And the thing about this is that, well, plastics, they’re like a cocktail party, they actually call them. So when they get to the water, they dissolve. And they start like, well, they don’t dissolve, they’re start to break up into microplastics. And it’s microplastics. And they actually capture all this, like toxins, like PVCs and everything that is in the water, and was when a small fish, they eat them. And then larger fish like sharks, they eat this smaller fish, they buy or accumulate these plastics.

Also, there’s another really big threat, which is climate change. We have seen it and we were in this eastern part of the Galápagos, the water was really warm. So just imagine sharks, they don’t like this really hot water. So they will have to change their like migratory routes or their like their distribution, to allocate to better places that are cooler for them to survive. There’s the saying that I really love when they were trying to explain me like why should we protect the way that for instance, hammerheads go from the Cocos Island to the Galápagos Island. They are protected in Cocos Island and as well hear in Galápagos Island, but what happens along their way is like your kids in a bus, you protect them that you know that they are safe your house, you know that they are safe in school, but what happens if you don’t know if they’re safe the bus? Okay, so we’re trying to, to save them along this way. We’re trying to give them like these protected areas where they can move from one place to another that we know that they’re really important places for them. It doesn’t make sense protecting them in one place and another and that they can be fished in the middle of it.

Usnea:
What role does research expeditions like this play in conservation efforts? And do you think that science can really make a difference?

Andrea Vera:
Well, I’m gonna answer from back to the top. So yes, I really believe that science can make a difference, in conservation. Science can become actions. So understanding where species are, what they do and the main places that some species reproduce, you can know these really important places for the lifespan of the species that must be protected. So with this you can go to politicians and create laws in changes that can improve conservation of those species.

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Hannah Stitfall:
There was huge excitement when Spanish actress and star from the Netflix series Money Heist, Alba Flores, joined the Galápagos expedition for a week. Alba is one of Greenpeace’s Ocean Ambassadors. In recent weeks, she was invited by Greenpeace to join the Galápagos expedition for a week, I was lucky enough to be able to catch up with her once she got back home.

Alba Flores:
Hello! How are you?

Hannah Stitfall:
I’m very well! How are you?

Alba Flores:
I’m good. I’m good. I’m still dealing with some jet lag. But I’m really good. Yeah. Happy.

Hannah Stitfall:
So Alba, you joined the Galápagos expedition very recently. How long were you on the ship for and what were you doing there?

Alba Flores:
I were with them for a week. And we were doing all these videos on the campaign about the marine sanctuary that they have there. And we also were like, as a witness of the work that the scientists were doing there.

Hannah Stitfall:
And can you describe for us what it was like being on the boat? I mean, did did you have any expectations before you went?

Alba Flores:
I never went on a ship in such a long journey. I never sleep over over a ship. So I didn’t know what to expect, because it was the first time for me. And it was like comfortable experience. Like they know how to make you feel that you’re at home.

Hannah Stitfall:
What would you say your favourite part of the experience was.

Alba Flores:
Well the snorkelling was awesome. I wish we could like swim more in those waters in that part of the ocean because it is full of life. And, and I also enjoyed the time spent with a crew because they are like, full of stories about activism and sea adventures and things like that. And that was like, I learned a lot. Everyone was in bed at like nine. Because they work really, really hard. I mean, all the crew, they are amazing. They were so helpful with the scientist and with us, with the media. And sometimes we asked for impossible things like, can you turn all the ship, because the sun, you know, is is too hard, and we cannot shoot this properly. They are like, kind of like super heroes and super heroines.

Hannah Stitfall:
And the Galápagos marine reserve is one of the best examples of ocean protection in action. It’s got, what 200,000 square kilometres are protected. What does that look like? And how different is it to unprotected areas?

Alba Flores:
Well, I never went to unprotected areas, but in the park, you have protected areas. And inside those areas, are there high protected areas. And you can also see the difference between them like…

Hannah Stitfall:
Can you? Just between the protected areas and the highly protected areas, you can clearly see a difference?

Alba Flores:
Yeah, of course, because the highly, highly protected areas. No human have been there, at all. So in those parts are aware, the you know, all the creatures, all the animals is where they are. They’re really, really safe to give birth and everything. So we didn’t see any ship or boat, or people for two or three days do it was like

Hannah Stitfall:
Wow!

Alba Flores:
Nobody was there. So, in Galápagos, we were not allowed to scuba diving. Because it’s protected. We just could do a snorkelling but doesn’t need like anything else there because because life is pumping up to your face like you just gotta go like this into the water. And its like… Woah! Because it’s like: a shark, a manta ray, a penguin like this in the same like two metres square.

Hannah Stitfall:
Wow!

Alba Flores:
Yeah, really awesome.

Hannah Stitfall:
Oh, I bet it’s… I visited marine protected areas before but I’ve never, I’ve never been to anywhere that’s highly, highly protected. As somebody that loves wildlife, but that must have been such an experience for you. Oh, I’m jealous, very jealous.

Alba Flores:
Yeah, I mean, I’m so lucky. So, so lucky. It is overwhelming. Just being in a ship, I think is really, really overwhelming because you have a sense of hugeness never ending space. And I’m just another animal between all these creatures. I think that is a lesson of humility, oceans are crucial. And all scientists, all thinkers of the people that knows about this, that have been studying this, they keep on saying it, like, this planet, the blue planet, is blue for a reason, like we are like, mostly water, we have to protect the oceans. And in that way, the oceans will protect us.

Hannah Stitfall:
But I think now, so many more people are aware and interested in issues with the environment and ocean conservation. And of course, having someone like you that’s actively going out to these places, and you’re and you’re vocal about it to your followers. You know, it’s it’s really important, because you might be reaching people that have never really thought about ocean conservation before but they watch you for for the shows you’re in, you know, so you’re doing a really, really good job as well to be a part of it. You know?

Alba Flores:
I hope so. I mean, that’s the point of doing. I don’t have a way to measure how well this is working like to spread a message that I believe in, and that the people who is I don’t know watching my my work, like my TV shows and everything if they engage with a message, but I have to fight for what I believe.

Hannah Stitfall:
Well I think just keep going because we think you’re doing a fantastic job. And I just want to say a huge thank you for coming on and talking to me today. It’s been an absolute pleasure and really do keep up the fantastic work.

Alba Flores:
Thank you.

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Hannah Stitfall:
the Arctic Sunrise is a big icebreaker, a 50 metre long ship designed for polar expeditions coming in at almost 1000 tonnes. The scientists and the team of volunteers are one thing. But who’s the crew keeping the ship going? Let’s meet the Captain.

Captain Mike:
My name is Captain Mike. And I’m one of the Greenpeace captains currently on the Arctic Sunrise.

Usnea:
Would you tell us a little bit about how the journey has gone so far?

Captain Mike:
This expedition is just gone from strength to strength. The beginning was the tranquil seas of the mid international waters between Galápagos and Ecuador. Because it took a lot of to prepare the ship for for the Galápagos, a tremendous amount of biohazard control that we needed to make sure that the ship was completely clean of any foreign bugs, and how it was cleaned and made sure we didn’t have certain seeds and certain fruits and certain things on board that we could bring into the island that could evolve into their own super beings. So we had to do all of these controls before we arrived. So I had a little bit of apprehension, whether they would even let us in. Fortunately when we did arrive, and we’ve done such even like blanking out all white lights, only yellow light is visible from the ship. So it doesn’t distract birds or anything. When we did come there did a vigorous inspection. And once we got that certificate signed off, and yes, we had passed and we had a licence to navigate the Galápagos archipelago. The relief was phenomenal. And then the adventure really started.

Usnea:
Can you tell us a bit about what your job as Captain means and looks like on a day to day basis.

Captain Mike:
On a day to day basis. I would liken myself probably to mother hen with a clutch of chicks that are all running about.

Crew member:
Seven o’clock, seven o’clock. Copy.

Captain Mike:
have an engineering department very technical in keeping the ship running. I have a deck department that is responsible for the maintenance and the operations of the decks.

Crew member:
For day eight o’clock…

Captain Mike:
Then I have a galley, and that’s all the food and that’s quite a demanding a department because there’s a lot of hungry mouths to feed. There’s 36 people on board when it’s on its full capacity and we’ve been up to that on this trip. And then we have the the navigational side as well.

Crew member:
And then we’ll stop and drift back through the night and be back in position…

Captain Mike:
Having all of these personalities and activities going on.

Crew member:
Thank you 1891

Captain Mike:
I do feel a big part of mine is trying to encompass and make sure everybody’s comfortable and feeling safe and feeling that they can be at home on board the boat.

Usnea:
What’s it like to be a ship captain, on a boat like this that’s conducting such important research.

Captain Mike:
For me to be here in the Galápagos system is a complete honour. And I think the the rest of the crew recognise that too. Boats don’t come in and out of the Galápagos boats that operate in the area stay in the area, we are an international vessel coming in and out. And I describe how complicated and complex that is.

So to be on a boat that can come in, this is an international mariners dream to be able to navigate these waters. But not only that, we’re not just navigating on our own here, we have the best guides who give us their first hand experience. And that is years of experience. They’ll tell us all the detail, the extreme detail or everything. So for me, I have been at sea for nearly 40 years. But I’ve never seen a system or an archipelago as beautiful and as imaginative as this is, it is just mind boggling. It’s creative, it’s just breathtaking, and has really inspired me to carry on.

I do have this want to make the planet beautiful, to help the planet stay beautiful, it is already beautiful. And I wanted to stay intact. And hopefully even future generations will have that possibility to see that diversity and that we can hold on to that as much as possible. So that’s what keeps me going. That’s what drives me do what I do.

Captain Mike:
Copy that Puma, done with the diving and you’re returning to the boat. We’ll turn and make a leave for you.

Usnea:
Do you feel that you’ve seen anything on this trip that’s shown us the impact of climate change on the oceans.

Captain Mike:
I have seen, I have noticed that the temperatures are quite warm. Being a mariner I studied oceanography at in the Maritime College. And there is this vertical movement of water in the oceans, which on the West Coasts causes an upwelling and cold water. That’s why the fisheries is generally much richer on this side. And so I would have expected to have pockets at least of cold water, possibly 20 degrees or even chillier than that. I grew up in South Africa on the west coast near Cape Town. And we have the same effect there as you would here. But if you look here at the Aqua graph where we have our sensor, its showing us currently sort of 26 and a half degrees, so it’s phenomenally warm. Whether that’s El Nino, which it could be or climate affecting anything, but it is unseasonably warm water for the area.

Usnea:
We did have an incident with a sea turtle and some crew members. Did you want to share about that Mike?

Captain Mike:
Oh, yeah, we would just pick you picking up the BRUVs, these basic remote underwater video systems. And as we just come to the end of the line, and we had a boat, we just happen to have a boat in the water. And I think it was the Chief Mate saw, I saw, he said there’s some plastic floating. If you’ve got a boat in the water, we’ll just shoot off and pick the plastic up. But when the boat arrived at the plastic, the plastic actually was moving. And it was a it was a sea turtle caught up in plastic but it didn’t have the plastic only wrapped around its neck, apparently it had ingested into too. And they managed to be the first responders really and pull the plastic out and happy little turtle did swim away. Very thankful.

Usnea:
Beautiful. Yeah, and I remember just the look on Chris and Audrey is our Third Mate and deckhands faces as they returned. They were so impacted by being able to participate in that rescue. Like you could tell they were wildly moved by it for sure.

Captain Mike:
Things like that are life changing. I mean, I remember just freeing in plastic a bird off the west coast of Africa. Many do, a lot of gannets and they will have plastic caught on their beaks because they dive at a bright spark and it’s actually from the fishing industry and then they suddenly got a piece of rope strapped to their beak for the, until… well you see them flying. We actually called them the ‘plastic gannets’. But one was really entangled and landed on the deck and I managed to throw net over it, it wasn’t a very happy, it was really an angry bird. It didn’t, wasn’t happy with us. But I did manage to free it from the plastic and see it fly off. Moments like that are so rewarding. But I wasn’t only rewarded by feeling wise, that evening, tucked under the pillow in my cabin, was a little note from the bird. And it said Thank you, the Angry Bird.

Usnea:
Love it. It seems like it got over its feelings of anger and moved to gratitude.

Captain Mike:
I don’t think it was from the bird, but I don’t know who it was from.

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Hannah Stitfall:
And now back to Sophie, the expedition lead.

Sophie Cooke:
It’s been absolutely amazing to see the richness and diversity of marine life here, it’s just been, every time you go out on deck, you see something, whether it’s the sharks swimming by, the rays leaping out of the ocean, its amazing variety of bird life. It really is quite a special place. And knowing that there were really good protections in place around the Galápagos is really wonderful. But once you start going a bit further, we still have those threats from industrial fisheries, and you get out to the high seas and these areas could potentially be mined in the future for deep sea mining. Everything is still vulnerable, where we haven’t got protections in place. So yeah, that’s kind of going to be some of the next steps is looking at where in the high seas are the best areas and that we could actually make a difference.

Our oceans are such a special wondrous place. And often the things that are happening to them we don’t see, whether it’s the industrial fishing fleet so far from land or the mining machines down on the bottom of the ocean. A lot of this is like literally like swept under the carpet we don’t realise what effect we are having here. Because it’s just so far from where our eyes are seeing every day. And so just getting over the urgency and the threats that we’re facing right now and understanding that this has to happen. Now we’ve got the treaty we need to get these places protected before we lose them for good.

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Hannah Stitfall:
Next week, I’m looking more into how the oceans are changing. I’m joined by the DJ and environmental toxicologist Jayda G to talk about a little magic thing called Blue Carbon. And Amit Sharma, a scientist and climate advocate from Mauritius to understand what the changing oceans mean for the future of our island nations.

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This episode was brought to you by Greenpeace and Crowd Network. It’s hosted by me, wildlife filmmaker and broadcaster Hannah Stitfall. It is produced by Anastasia Auffenberg, and our executive producer Steve Jones. The music we use is from our partners BMG Production Music. Archive courtesy of Greenpeace. The team at Crowd Network is Catalina Nogueira, Archie Built Cliff, George Sampson and Robert Wallace. The team at Greenpeace is James Hansen, Flora Hevesi, Alex Yallop, Janae Mayer and Alice Lloyd Hunter. Thanks for listening and see you next week. Transcribed by https://otter.ai

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