Galapagos Island Tour Ban
A Galapagos island tour ban has been put in place on five diving tour operators which have been banned from diving the island waters after operating there for more than 6 years. The reasons for the ban are not entirely clear, as the Galapagos National Park Service (GNPS) has not offered a detailed explanation of their decision.
It is tied to a new GNPS program that will require all dive companies to acquire permits to operate in the Galapagos. Many conservationists applaud the move, but question why the long standing dive operators were forced to shut down as the permit process is developed. The ban was instituted in November 2010 with permit criteria promised by January 2011. However, it has been over 6 months since then and the criteria have still not been published, while the ban remains in effect. The dive operators have tried various avenues for getting the ban lifted but have so far been unsuccessful.
This entry was posted on Sunday, December 4th, 2011 at 9:51 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.