El Niño, the greatest threat in decades for vulnerable species in the Galapagos

Unusually warm for this time of year, the Pacific waters carry a warning all the way to the beaches: The boy It has already begun and comes with the forecast of being the most intense in decades, a sentence of starvation and death for the black marine iguanas of the Ecuadorian Galapagos archipelago.

On the white sand of Santa Cruz Island, specimens of “Amblyrhynchus cristatus” overflow, which can live up to 60 years. It is a unique species, with a prehistoric appearance and one of the most threatened by the increase in ocean surface temperature associated with the El Niño climate phenomenon, which also weakens the winds and generates heavy rains.

It is an event “that has permanently plagued the Galapagos”, points out Danny Wheeldirector of the Galapagos National Park, in an interview with AFP.

However, its intensity and frequency varies. in 1982 The boy it issued a first warning of fury, and in 1997 it bleached entire coral colonies and wreaked havoc on the animal life of the islands that inspired the Darwinian theory of evolution.

AND “This would possibly, according to forecasts, be the third El Niño phenomenon with this magnitude equal to the previous ones”, says Rueda, worried.

The United States Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced the onset of El Niño on June 8, warning that “could set new temperature records” in certain regions.

In the past, El Niño reduced the population of penguins and flying cormorants by 30%. It also affected Galapagos sea lions and marine iguanas, the four most vulnerable species in the archipelago.

Normally, at this time of the year there should be an “inflow of cold water, but we still have very warm water,” observes Rueda.

Height and weight loss

Monitoring the animal population will make it possible to determine the intensity of El Niño, which occurs on average every two to seven years and usually lasts between nine and twelve months.

Before a minorreproductive success” of these species, explains Rueda, we are “speaking of an El Niño phenomenon (…), in the field of conservation, with a very serious effect”.

And although it is a natural climatic phenomenon, the current episode falls under “in the context of a climate modified by human activities”, warns the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

The species of the Galapagos are in a position to survive climatic anomalies, which is known as resilience, but if these variations occur too frequently and intensely, they do not have time to recover and there is a threat of breaking the balance between birth and mortality.

Flying penguins and cormorants, with a population of 1,000 to 1,500 individuals, may be more affected than marine iguanas, the only ones in the world capable of diving.

With about 450,000 individuals, these reptiles are a “population that can recover very soon”, Rueda points out, which does not prevent them from losing weight and shrinking up to five centimeters, as has been documented in the past.

Marine iguanas only eat algae near the beach.”and they cannot swim great distances in the open sea to look for (their) food”, which is scarce precisely at the time of El Niño, complements the director of the NGO Galapagos Conservancy in Ecuador, Washington Tapia.

And less algae means fewer fish, which in turn are eaten by sea lions and other species.

flooded nests

Even, due to heavy rains, the populations of sea and land turtles can also be affected, since the nests would be flooded and their eggs would be lost.

“Being a natural phenomenon, we do not have any preventive measures”, the only thing that can be done is “have the post-Niño population number to know how much the phenomenon impacted these vulnerable populations” of the Galapagossays the director of the Park.

1,000 km from the Ecuadorian coast, the archipelago is home to 33,000 people and is one of the places most exposed to the climate crisis.

“We are in a place where many marine currents converge and that causes events such as El Niño, a product of climate change, to have a severe impact on many species and on some ecosystems.“, Explain Wallwho directs a giant tortoise repopulation project together with the Peruvian multinational beverage company AJE.

For now, on Tortuga Bay beach, on the island of Santa Cruz, marine iguanas – which can go down to 12 meters deep and remain submerged for up to 60 minutes – still find food near the white sands.