The Galapagos Islands are totally hot right now. To tourists, the island chain 600 miles off the coast of Ecuador offers stunning biodiversity (blue-footed boobies!) that infamously inspired Charles Darwin to write The Origin of Species. To residents, the tourism-driven economy offers high wages, top-notch public schools, and a dearth of violent crime. But as more and more humans show up -- the resident population has nearly doubled in the past decade to 30,000, while 180,000 tourists are expected to visit this year -- they bring with them alien species and increased pollution. In response to a 2007 United Nations listing of the Galapagos as a World Heritage Site in Danger, the government has taken some steps to regulate tourism, but has resisted a hard cap on visitors. It is, however, cracking down on citizens: This year, 1,000 folks without residency and work permits have been kicked off the islands, while 2,000 others have in effect been told they must leave within a year.

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The Galapagos Islands are iconic for biologists and conservationists, home to a dizzying array of rare and endangered species that inspired Charles Darwin's seminal work on evolution. Today, the entire marine ecosystem surrounding the islands may be in jeopardy. The militant fishing unions that hold sway over the administration of Ecuadorian President Lucio Gutierrez are asking him to permit longline fishing throughout the Galapagos Marine Reserve, an internationally protected area since 1986. Longline fishing involves laying lines that are miles long, strung with hundreds of thousands of baited hooks. In some cases up to 80 percent of the resulting catch consists of dolphins, sea turtles, sea birds, sea lions, and other (tourist-attracting) marine animals. The situation is sufficiently alarming that UNESCO is sending a delegation to the islands in April and may add them to its "danger list" of ecosystems in immediate peril.

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Just weeks after scientists found that an apparently harmless oil spill in the Galapagos Islands in January 2001 in fact led to a massive iguana die-off, another spill has tainted the pristine archipelago. Late last week, a small barge spilled close to 2,000 gallons of diesel near the island of Puerto Villamil, home to turtles, iguanas, and sea lions. The spill was small and no animals were immediately affected, but scientists say it is too early to say what long-term effects it will have on microorganisms and marine species. The spill also heightened fears that Ecuador does not have the resources to effectively manage the famed islands, because the country failed to devise a safer way to transport fuel to electric plants in the archipelago after last year's disaster, which sent almost 240,000 gallons of fuel into waters around the Galapagos.

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Eighteen months ago, a grounded tanker spilled 150,000 gallons of diesel and bunker fuel into the waters around the famed Galapagos Islands. Luckily, shifting winds sent most of the fuel out to sea rather than into shore, so sea lion and bird deaths numbered in the dozens rather than the hundreds. At the time, biologists and conservationists breathed a sigh of relief, believing the islands and their inhabitants had been largely spared. Now, though, a long-term study of the unique Galapagos marine iguana has found that the small amount of oil that did reach the islands wrought a disproportionately large amount of havoc. On the island of Santa Fe, where the spill left about a quart of oil per each yard of the windward shore, the iguana population declined from 25,000 to 10,000. Scientists theorize that the oil killed the bacteria naturally present in iguanas' guts that allows them to digest seaweed; in the absence of the bacteria, the animals starved to death. The findings provide new evidence that even small spills can have subtle yet far-reaching environmental effects.

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Ecuador unveiled a plan yesterday that could help protect marine and bird species native to the Galapagos Islands, whose unique wildlife inspired Charles Darwin to formulate his theory of natural selection. At present, Galapagos fishers are legally allowed to ply their trade in the waters around the archipelago, to the dismay of conservationists. Now the government plans to pilot a program that would encourage anglers to accept a voluntary two-mile, no-fishing zone around the islands, which lie about 600 miles off the coast of Ecuador. In exchange, the government would offer to help the 400 licensed local fishing boats sell their catches from the outer reaches of the Galapagos marine reserve to industrial tuna fleets. Tuna is the country's fifth-biggest export, and industrial fishers have long clamored for fishing rights in the reserve. Environmentalists have said that letting in the fleets would be a disaster for marine and bird life. The government said its compromise plan would placate the industry, help local fishers, and protect the ecology of the Galapagos.

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At least 35 sea lions were found dead and mutilated in Ecuador's Galapagos Islands on Sunday. Acting on an anonymous tip, officials of the Galapagos National Park discovered the bodies washed up on the beach, with their teeth and genitalia removed. Authorities suspect that the sea lions were killed to sell the body parts as aphrodisiacs in Asia. Sea lions have no natural predators and generally aren't afraid of humans.

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