Hermandad

The Hermandad Marine Reserve is a large protected ocean area established in the Galápagos Province of Ecuador, created by executive decree on January 14, 2022, by President Guillermo Lasso. Spanning 60,000 square kilometers, Hermandad was created as an expansion to the existing Galápagos Marine Reserve, bringing the total protected marine area around the Galápagos Islands to approximately 198,000 square kilometers. The reserve is divided into two zones: a strict no-take zone of 30,000 square kilometers that establishes an uninterrupted migratory corridor connecting the Galápagos Marine Reserve with the protected waters of the Eastern Tropical Pacific, and a responsible-use fishing zone of a further 30,000 square kilometers. The name Hermandad, meaning brotherhood or sisterhood, reflects the cooperative international spirit behind the reserve, which represents Ecuador's contribution to a broader regional marine conservation corridor spanning Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, and Costa Rica.

The Hermandad Marine Reserve protects critical migratory routes and feeding areas for some of the ocean's most imperiled species. Scalloped hammerhead sharks, which gather in enormous aggregations in the Galápagos and along the Eastern Tropical Pacific corridor, depend on the uninterrupted ocean habitat that Hermandad helps to secure. Whale sharks, the largest fish in the ocean, migrate seasonally through these waters between the Galápagos and Cocos Island, following temperature and productivity gradients. Giant oceanic manta rays, green sea turtles, and leatherback sea turtles are among the other charismatic migratory species that use the reserve's protected corridor. The deeper waters of the reserve are home to sperm whales, humpback whales, and several dolphin species including the common dolphin and the pantropical spotted dolphin. Swordfish, yellowfin tuna, and other large pelagic fish move through the productive upwelling-influenced waters of the reserve throughout the year.

The open ocean environment of the Hermandad Marine Reserve supports a productive phytoplankton and zooplankton community sustained by the nutrient-rich upwelling currents of the eastern Pacific. Cold water from depth, driven upward by the interaction of the Humboldt Current and the trade winds, brings dissolved nutrients to the sunlit surface layer where microscopic phytoplankton photosynthesize and form the base of the marine food web. These plankton blooms in turn support the zooplankton, small fish, and squid populations that feed the large migratory predators the reserve was designed to protect. In the shallower waters closer to the Galápagos Island margins, macroalgae including marine algae and kelp-like species grow on rocky substrate, providing habitat for sea urchins, fish, and marine iguanas. Deep-sea habitats within the reserve likely include chemosynthetic communities around hydrothermal vents on the Galápagos spreading ridge, supporting unique biological communities independent of sunlight.

The Hermandad Marine Reserve encompasses a portion of the eastern Pacific Ocean floor underlain by the Galápagos Platform, a broad submarine plateau formed by the volcanic activity of the Galápagos hotspot. The Galápagos Islands themselves are the surfacing peaks of this enormous volcanic shield, and the underwater topography of the surrounding ocean includes seamounts, ridges, and deep basins that channel ocean currents and create the upwelling conditions responsible for the extraordinary marine productivity of the region. The Galápagos Spreading Center, an active mid-ocean ridge system, lies to the north of the reserve area and contributes to the dynamic geological setting of the broader Galápagos region. The marine floor within the reserve varies from shallow volcanic platform habitat near the islands to abyssal depths exceeding 3,000 meters in the open ocean sections of the reserve. Hydrothermal vent fields have been discovered in the deep sections of the Galápagos spreading zone, hosting communities of tube worms, shrimp, and other chemosynthetic organisms.

The climate of the Hermandad Marine Reserve zone is governed by the competing influences of the warm Panama Current from the north and the cold Humboldt (Peru) Current from the south, along with the South Equatorial Current that flows westward across the Pacific. During the warm season from January to May, warmer, calmer waters prevail around the Galápagos and the reserve zone, with reduced upwelling and lower biological productivity. The cool, dry season from June to December brings increased upwelling of cold, nutrient-rich water, driving the plankton blooms that fuel the extraordinary concentrations of marine life for which the region is famous. Sea surface temperatures in the reserve can vary from as low as 16 to 19 degrees Celsius during peak cold season upwelling to as warm as 28 to 30 degrees Celsius during El Niño events. El Niño events significantly disrupt the marine ecosystem by suppressing upwelling and warming surface waters, causing food shortages for marine predators and periodic mass mortality events among seabirds and marine mammals.

The open ocean waters of the Hermandad Marine Reserve have no history of permanent human settlement, but they have been traversed by human mariners for centuries. Indigenous peoples of the Ecuadorian coast, including the Manteño culture, were accomplished ocean navigators who made balsa-raft voyages across the Pacific, possibly reaching the Galápagos Islands before European contact. The Spanish explorer Tomás de Berlanga accidentally discovered the Galápagos in 1535 while sailing from Panama to Peru, and European whalers and sealers subsequently exploited the rich marine life of the Galápagos and surrounding Pacific waters during the 18th and 19th centuries, dramatically depleting whale, sea lion, and sea turtle populations. The waters of what is now the Hermandad Reserve were used by industrial fishing fleets through the 20th century, with large-scale longline, purse-seine, and shark finning operations posing serious threats to migratory species in the region.

The Hermandad Marine Reserve was officially declared on January 14, 2022, in a signing ceremony attended by President Guillermo Lasso at the Galápagos Islands, marking one of the largest single expansions of marine protected area in the history of South America. The reserve was the product of years of collaboration between the Galápagos National Park Directorate, international conservation organizations including the Charles Darwin Foundation and Wildlife Conservation Society, and the governments of Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, and Costa Rica who are working toward an interconnected Eastern Tropical Pacific marine protected area corridor. The name Hermandad was chosen to honor the cooperative spirit of the multinational conservation effort and the concept of brotherhood between nations united by a common ocean. Ecuador committed to the creation of the reserve in advance of the COP26 climate summit as part of its national contribution to the global 30x30 conservation target. The reserve builds on Ecuador's long history of marine conservation in the Galápagos, which has been protected as a marine reserve since 1986.

The Hermandad Marine Reserve is an open ocean reserve with no land area, and is therefore accessible primarily through liveaboard dive expeditions departing from the Galápagos Islands. Divers visiting the reserve's core waters are rewarded with encounters with large pelagic species including whale sharks, hammerhead sharks, manta rays, and sea turtles in oceanic conditions. The reserve is part of the broader Galápagos diving experience, and its creation has expanded the protected corridor through which these species travel between the Galápagos and Cocos Island in Costa Rica. Scientific research expeditions exploring the deep-sea habitats, documenting pelagic species movements through acoustic tagging, and monitoring shark and ray populations are the primary organized activities within the strict no-take zone. Wildlife watching from the surface, including cetacean spotting and seabird observation, is possible from passing research or liveaboard vessels. The reserve is best understood as part of the broader Galápagos marine ecosystem rather than as a standalone visitor destination.

The Hermandad Marine Reserve is a remote open ocean area with no visitor infrastructure of its own. Access is possible only by sea, departing from the port of Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz Island or from the ports of other inhabited Galápagos Islands. Liveaboard dive vessels that operate in the Galápagos routinely traverse portions of the Hermandad reserve area during routes connecting the Galápagos Islands with the far northern and western dive sites. Entry to the Galápagos Islands requires all visitors to hold a transit control card and pay the applicable national park entrance fee, and a separate permit is required for liveaboard dive operations. The reserve's remote open-ocean sections are rarely visited by recreational tourists and are more commonly accessed by research vessels and Galápagos National Park patrol boats. Visitors wishing to experience the biodiversity of the broader Galápagos marine environment should book liveaboard dive expeditions well in advance through licensed Galápagos dive operators.

The Hermandad Marine Reserve was created explicitly as a conservation intervention to protect migratory marine species from high-seas fishing pressure in international waters adjacent to the Galápagos Marine Reserve. Scientific research using satellite tracking of whale sharks, sea turtles, hammerhead sharks, and manta rays had demonstrated that these species regularly travel between the Galápagos and other protected areas in the Eastern Tropical Pacific, crossing unprotected ocean that exposed them to fishing fleets and longline bycatch. By establishing the reserve's no-take corridor, Ecuador has effectively closed a critical gap in the protection network for these species. The reserve is seen as a foundational piece of the larger Eastern Tropical Pacific Marine Corridor initiative connecting Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, and Costa Rica. Enforcement of the no-take zone in such a vast, remote ocean area is a significant challenge, and Ecuador has committed to patrol resources including the Galápagos National Park maritime patrol vessels. International support from conservation organizations and partner governments is central to the long-term viability of the reserve.