Class Objectives:

To develop a new preservation strategy for the Galapagos that builds on the current management plan for the Galapagos National Park and Galapagos Marine Reserve by designating the two as a "World Scientific Preserve" that would be managed by an international commission and funded by a multinational trust.

To design and deploy a network of environmental sensors to support a comprehensive program of ecosystem monitoring on the islands and surrounding waters.

To design an idealized "village" for permanent residents and visitors that would ensure the lowest possible human impact on island ecosystems.

News

9/17 – We had a Team meeting today in which we established meeting protocol and got better acquainted. For this week, we will be getting to know more about the general information on our islands and the Galapagos as a whole.

9/20 – Today the course instructor, Kip Hodges, gave a lecture entitled “Understanding Tasks.” We basically compiled a list of many of the issues we should be dealing with relating to each of the three tasks. Looking at this list, one can truly begin to appreciate the complexity of the problem that we are faced with in this class.

9/22 – In today's coordination meeting, we split our group into a few individuals dealing with legal aspects and the rest dealing with biological aspects of the problem. I will be dealing with international law by looking at past examples of treaties and looking for organizations through which to channel our efforts.

9/23 – In looking up the manner in which international laws generally work, I have found that the UN has a specific committee that deals with such things as conservation. Perhaps this will be a highly recognized organization to give some muscle to any Galapagos World Preserve that may be formed. I also looked into a few non-governmental organizations such as Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund. These groups may be able to assist in “grassroots” support of the World Reserve for nations that may feel they have no stake in it.

9/24 – We had a Team meeting today where we received an overview of more information on our islands from several of the team members. My assigned task for the week is to look into types of marine sensors and how they can be used in the Galapagos.

9/27 – Kip gave a lecture entitled “Galapagos Now” which focused on the current events that relate to the islands. Of important interest is the current unrest of Ecuadorian fishermen with the National Park Service.

10/1 – In our Team meeting today, we learned how to update the team website and talked a bit more about what needed to be put on the site.

10/3 – I have been researching marine sensors over the weekend and have unfortunately only found highly technical papers dealing with modeling systems from a software aspect. Also, I have had a significant amount of trouble finding methods of determining fish populations and have, instead, only found processes for plankton populations.

10/6 – Bob Gurnitz joined us in our coordination meeting today. He gave us a bit of advice pertaining to the time situation of the course and the proper use of available resources. I also mentioned my difficulty in research to my teammates. Fortunately, Bob lent the team a book entitled Monitoring Plant and Animal Populations by Caryl L. Elzinga et al.

10/8 – In today's Team meeting, we overhauled our strategy by breaking the final three weeks of October into focus on the three objectives. For the first week, I will be looking at the past example of Antarctica.

10/10 – I found a report on the care taken by Greenpeace in establishing World Park Base in Antarctica. This report may be more useful once we reach our third week of research pertaining to the village. I also found a page on the website of the Australian government that gives a general description of the Antarctic Treaty followed by the full text. It follows the entire history of it including changes that have been made. I focused my research on the general structure of the agreement hoping that would be applicable to the Galapagos for the final plan.

10/15 – Today we had a Team meeting in which we assigned tasks pertaining to the second objective. I will be looking at population study procedures and analysis. We also tied up the lose ends of last week's research by looking at what needs more information.

10/20 – I will be reading selected chapters from Monitoring Plant and Animal Populations focusing on processes for determining populations for both plants and animals. This will go on my research page as soon as I get the time.

10/24 -- After finishing the chapters in Monitoring Plant and Animal Populations that deal with population study techniques, I have discovered that the processes often result in rather unreliable data but there currently aren't any better methods for determining trends in population size.  My notes are up on the research page now.  I will be referencing that page properly once I find out exactly how to use APA standards.