Cutting a ribbon made of refuse collected during a coastal cleanup project on the Galápagos Islands, Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso on Jan. 14 inaugurated a major addition to the famed archipelago’s marine reserve. The move, previewed at the COP26 global climate summit held last November in Glasgow, Scotland, effectively bolts a new reserve of 60,000 square kilometers (23,000 sq. miles) onto the existing 138,000-square-kilometer (53,000-sq.-mile) Galápagos Marine Reserve, which was created in 1998. Half of the new conservation area, which has been named the Brotherhood Marine Reserve, will be designated as “no-take” waters where fishing is prohibited. The other half will be subject to restrictions that include a ban on the use of longlining, a form of deep-water fishing that takes a particularly steep and indiscriminate toll on marine species. No less importantly, scientists say, the new swath of protected waters will cover migratory... [Log in to read more]