The Emergence of Recreational Fishing in the Galápagos Marine Reserve: Adaptation and Complexities

Abstract

In recent years a local experiential sport fishing industry, commonly known as Pesca Vivencial (PV), has emerged as a new type of activity in the Galápagos Marine Reserve (GMR). We analyze this new industry, which incorporates a surprising multitude of styles, using a complex adaptive systems (CAS) framework. We use CAS (a) to trace feedbacks between the ecological changes and social processes involved and (b) to frame the driving factors behind PV as extending beyond the fishing sector, which makes its logic as a response to the declining profitability of commercial fisheries over recent decades more understandable. The birth of this industry is a “response” and a bottom-up adaptation by fishers to changes in fishing but also tourism and overall GMR management. Focusing on the island of San Cristobal, this chapter will include historical analyses of the development of PV through its initial proposals and its changing forms of uptake. This article contributes to a thin area of research in this new activity so far, understanding the contested politics and livelihood struggles of the local residents involved. More broadly, our use of CAS is novel in that power dynamics within human interactions are part of feedbacks, often underplayed when applied to fisheries change.