Researchers from Ecuador have discovered a hammerhead shark nursery in the Galapagos Islands, nearly 1,000 miles off the coast of South America. This remote sanctuary has likely remained relatively pristine for over a million years.
“It was quite by chance that we found this natural nursery for baby hammerheads, a species that is under a high level of threat,” Galapagos Marine Reserve Eduardo Espinoza said in an interview with AFP. “It is a unique area, of great interest to conservationists. The females arrive to give birth and then leave. The young have all the food they need here and the reefs afford protection from large predators.”
Park rangers in the region have been monitoring the site by tagging hundreds of the species inside the Natural Heritage marine site.
Scalloped hammerheads routinely grow to lengths of 15 feet and can live for up to 50 years. After leaving the sanctuary of the reefs around two years of age, these hammerheads begin an annual migration that can take them thousands of miles through the Pacific Ocean.
In 2016, the government of Ecuador added extra protections for the species’ preservation by creating a 38,000-square-kilometer sanctuary zone between Darwin and Wolf islands, where all fishing is banned.
Jose Marin, a biologist at the Charles Darwin Foundation, an international scientific research nonprofit, said Ecuador was making “titanic efforts” in the field of conservation of sharks.
“These studies, sometimes using satellite tracking, alert us to where these sharks are being caught when they leave the marine reserve, and allow us to notify other countries so they can help us protect them,” he said.
