CNH Tours friend Hugo Echeverria, the legal advisor to the globally active marine conservation NGO "Sea Shepherd", recently informed us of the renewal of his organization's official (via signed agreement with the government of Ecuador) role in support of the Galapagos sniffer dog programme.    The "K9" (acronym for canine) dog team is trained to sniff out wildlife traffickers, and is an important deterrent in keeping people from trafficking in species and animal parts (e.g. live iguanas, shark fins, sea cucumbers, sea horses etc...).  

CNH Tours once had a one-on-one dinner with the Sea Shepherd Society founder, Paul Watson (one of the original founders of Greenpeace).   He is quite a character - and his dogged (no pun intended) determination to see (no pun intended) real conservation action in the marine world is second to none.   Sea Shepherd has been active in Galapagos for nearly 15 years and during this time, it has helped the Galapagos National Park Service achieve many conservation benchmarks.  They deserve our support.   For more information, see:

http://www.seashepherd.org/news-and-media/2014/06/26/k9-wildlife-contraband-detection-unit-will-remain-active-in-galapagos-through-2017-1599

For information on Paul Watson's adventures over the years, see the film made about them:  http://www.screensiren.ca/2011/05/eco-pirate-the-story-of-paul-watson-2/

 

Galapagos K9 Police Unit with sniffer dog (credit:  Cabo Marlon Valle, UPMA)