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Galápagos Foodways

Galápagos

Island

⚠ NOT COASTAL ECUADOR OFFSHORE. The Galápagos lie about 900 km into the Pacific, are 97 per cent national park and a UNESCO World Heritage site, and their food system is governed by BIOSECURITY LAW: what may be brought in is controlled, introduced species are the principal threat to the ecosystem, and most food arrives by ship from Guayaquil. The permanent population is recent — sustained settlement dates from the twentieth century, with a penal colony phase and a small Norwegian and German settler episode in the 1920s-30s. What is local: ARTISANAL FISHING under strict quota — brujo, bacalao, wahoo, and the SPINY LOBSTER and sea cucumber fisheries whose management has been contested — plus small farms in the humid highlands of Santa Cruz and San Cristóbal growing coffee, vegetables and cattle. ⚠ GIANT TORTOISES WERE EATEN BY WHALERS AND SEALERS IN ENORMOUS NUMBERS in the 18th and 19th centuries; that is a documented food history and a conservation catastrophe, and it is recorded as history, not as foodways.

Atlas — where and when

Where in the world

Communities and languages

Languages: Spanish, English

What is recorded

  • Galápagos foodways are recorded as a distinct island system, not as coastal Ecuadorian foodways offshore. The archipelago is 97 per cent national park, most food is shipped from the mainland under biosecurity control that exists because introduced species are the principal threat to the ecosystem, and local production is limited to quota-managed artisanal fishing and small highland farms. documented
  • Whaling and sealing vessels took giant tortoises from the Galápagos in very large numbers during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as shipboard provisions, contributing to the extinction of several island populations. This is recorded as documented food history and as a conservation event, not as a foodway. documented

Related foodways

This foodway relates to

  • related to Ecuadorian Coastal Foodways documented

    Supplied chiefly by ship from Guayaquil, under biosecurity control. ⚠ Supply is not identity.

Recipes

No recipes are filed under this cuisine yet.