By ShipCalculators.com · Published 8 May 2026

Particularly Sensitive Sea Area: Galapagos Archipelago

The Galapagos Particularly Sensitive Sea Area is the PSSA designated by the International Maritime Organization through Resolution MEPC.135(53) adopted on 22 July 2005, covering the entire Galapagos Archipelago of Ecuador and an offshore buffer extending 60 nautical miles seaward from the archipelagic baselines. The Galapagos Islands lie approximately 1,000 km west of mainland Ecuador on the equator and host one of the most distinctive endemic biotas on Earth, with around 9,000 documented endemic species across terrestrial and marine environments and a foundational role in evolutionary biology after the 1835 visit of Charles Darwin aboard HMS Beagle. The PSSA was proposed by Ecuador in the wake of the Jessica oil spill of January 2001 off San Cristobal Island, in which the bunkering tanker grounded on Schiavoni Reef and released approximately 700 tonnes of intermediate fuel oil and diesel, and was prepared in conjunction with the 2003 expansion of the Galapagos Marine Reserve to a 40 nautical mile boundary. The Associated Protective Measures comprise a PSSA boundary with a 60 nm offshore buffer, a binding area-to-be-avoided (ATBA) for ships of 500 gross tonnage and above not engaged in trade with the archipelago, a deep-water route west of Isabela Island for permitted transits, and a prohibition on hazardous-cargo transit through the ATBA except by Ecuadorian-flag vessels under licence. The Galapagos PSSA reinforces protections under MARPOL Annex I for oil pollution, Regulation 37 SOPEP shipboard contingency planning, the wider MARPOL Convention and Annex VI air pollution regime. The framework follows the model of the Great Barrier Reef PSSA and the trilateral Wadden Sea PSSA and predates the Western European Waters PSSA by sixteen months. ShipCalculators.com hosts a library of MARPOL and SOLAS calculators relevant to vessels routeing around the Galapagos PSSA, including ATBA-divergence fuel and time calculators, accessible through the calculator catalogue.

Contents

Background: PSSA framework recap and Galapagos uniqueness

A Particularly Sensitive Sea Area is an area recognised by the International Maritime Organization as needing special protection through action by IMO because of its significance for recognised ecological, socio-economic or scientific reasons and its vulnerability to damage from international shipping. The operative instrument is IMO Assembly Resolution A.982(24) of 1 December 2005, which sets out the Revised Guidelines for the Identification and Designation of Particularly Sensitive Sea Areas. A coastal state proposes the designation to the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) with a documented case under three criterion families, ecological, social-cultural-economic, and scientific-educational, and the proposal is paired with one or more Associated Protective Measures (APMs) drawn from existing IMO instruments. The framework was first applied to the Great Barrier Reef PSSA by Resolution MEPC.44(30) of 16 November 1990, then to the Wadden Sea by Resolution MEPC.101(48) of 16 October 2002, and then to the Western European Waters by Resolution MEPC.121(52) of 15 October 2004.

The Galapagos PSSA, designated by Resolution MEPC.135(53) on 22 July 2005, was the eighth PSSA designated globally and the first in the Eastern Tropical Pacific. It is unique in three respects. The first is the extreme biological endemism. The Galapagos biota was assembled over four to five million years from a small number of long-distance colonisations and adaptive radiation has produced roughly 9,000 species of which the great majority are found nowhere else on Earth. The second is the foundational role in evolutionary biology. The five-week visit of Charles Darwin aboard HMS Beagle from 15 September to 20 October 1835 produced the observations of Galapagos finches, mockingbirds and tortoises that became central evidence in On the Origin of Species of 1859. The third is the constrained socio-economic footprint. The resident population of approximately 30,000 is concentrated on four inhabited islands, with the balance of the archipelago administered as a national park since 1959 and a marine reserve since 1986.

The vulnerability of the archipelago to international shipping is straightforward. The islands lie roughly midway between the Panama Canal and the South Pacific great-circle approaches, and a persistent flow of tanker, bulk-carrier and fishing-vessel traffic passes within 100 nm of the archipelago. The combination of high-value endemic biota, dependence on bunker-fuel deliveries, exposed reef topography, and limited domestic spill-response capacity made the case for a PSSA compelling.

UNESCO World Heritage 1978 and Biosphere Reserve 1984

The Galapagos Islands were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List on 8 September 1978 as one of the first twelve sites listed worldwide, under criterion (vii) for containing superlative natural phenomena, criterion (viii) for outstanding examples representing major stages of Earth’s history, criterion (ix) for outstanding examples of significant on-going ecological and biological processes, and criterion (x) for containing the most important and significant natural habitats for in-situ conservation of biological diversity. The original 1978 inscription covered the terrestrial protected areas of the Galapagos National Park established in 1959. The marine component was added in 2001 following the formal proclamation of the Galapagos Marine Reserve in 1998 under Ecuadorian Special Law, producing the current World Heritage property covering 14,066 square kilometres of land area and 133,000 square kilometres of marine area.

The Galapagos was inscribed on the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere Programme as a Biosphere Reserve in 1984. The Biosphere Reserve covers the entire archipelago including the inhabited islands of Santa Cruz, San Cristobal, Isabela and Floreana under a zonation of core, buffer and transition zones aligned with the National Park boundaries.

The World Heritage status was placed on the List of World Heritage in Danger between 2007 and 2010 in response to the cumulative pressures of population growth on the inhabited islands, invasive species, illegal fishing, and concerns about tourism management. The delisting in 2010 followed sustained Ecuadorian government investment in invasive species control, fisheries enforcement, and the Special Regime for the Conservation and Sustainable Development of the Province of Galapagos. The PSSA designation of 2005 contributed directly to the case for delisting by demonstrating that the maritime risk vector had been brought under an internationally enforceable regime.

The World Heritage and Biosphere Reserve regimes are operationally separate from the IMO PSSA designation but mutually reinforcing. The PSSA addresses the navigational risk vector through the area-to-be-avoided, the deep-water route, and the hazardous-cargo prohibition, while the World Heritage inscription addresses the broader conservation obligations through state-party reporting to UNESCO. The Outstanding Universal Value statement of the Galapagos property cites the IMO PSSA designation as an integral component of the protective regime relied upon for the 2010 delisting.

2001 Jessica oil spill and the political impetus

The political impetus for the Galapagos PSSA was the Jessica oil spill of January 2001. The Jessica was an Ecuadorian-flag bunkering tanker of approximately 850 deadweight tonnes operating between the mainland port of Guayaquil and the Galapagos to deliver intermediate fuel oil and marine diesel oil to the resident fishing fleet, the inter-island ferry network, the cruise-ship fleet, and the diesel power generation on the inhabited islands. On 16 January 2001 the Jessica grounded on Schiavoni Reef at the entrance to Wreck Bay, off the town of Puerto Baquerizo Moreno on San Cristobal Island, in calm conditions and clear visibility, in what was attributed to a navigational error by the master.

The vessel held approximately 600 tonnes of intermediate fuel oil 120 (IFO 120) and 300 tonnes of marine diesel oil. Salvage and lightering operations were partially successful, but cumulative release reached approximately 700 tonnes, with the diesel evaporating rapidly and the heavier IFO drifting along the southern coast of San Cristobal and the western coasts of Santa Fe and Floreana. Biological impact was concentrated on marine iguanas of San Cristobal and on seabirds including the Galapagos penguin and the flightless cormorant, with subsequent studies documenting elevated marine-iguana mortality through 2002 and 2003 attributed to disruption of gut microbiota by sub-lethal hydrocarbon exposure.

The international media response was disproportionate to the volume spilled. The Jessica spill was small by global tanker-spill standards, smaller by orders of magnitude than the Exxon Valdez, the Erika or the Prestige, but the iconic status of the Galapagos and the live broadcast of marine iguanas in oil produced a sustained global conservation response. The Charles Darwin Foundation, the Galapagos National Park Service, the Ecuadorian government, IMO, ITOPF, and international conservation organisations coordinated the response and damage assessment. The International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation (ITOPF) documented the case and the lessons learned were taken into the IMO process.

The master was prosecuted under Ecuadorian law and the vessel was declared a constructive total loss. The Ecuadorian government established a bunker-fuel transport reform programme, requiring double-hull bunkering tankers, mandatory pilotage on approach to all inhabited-island anchorages, and strengthened spill-response prepositioning at Puerto Ayora and Puerto Baquerizo Moreno. The PSSA proposal was prepared in parallel and submitted to MEPC 51 in 2004 by Ecuador with technical support from the IMO Marine Environment Division.

2003 Galapagos Marine Reserve expansion

The Galapagos Marine Reserve (GMR) is the protected area surrounding the archipelago under Ecuadorian domestic law. The original 1986 reserve covered the waters within 15 nm of the archipelagic baselines. The reserve was expanded by the Special Law for the Conservation and Sustainable Development of the Province of Galapagos of 18 March 1998 to a 40 nm boundary measured from the baselines, producing a marine area of 133,000 square kilometres administered by the Galapagos National Park Service under the Ministerio del Ambiente.

The 2003 phase of the reserve expansion involved the formal completion of the zonation and management plan, the inscription of the marine area on the World Heritage List, and the operational deployment of the Galapagos National Park Service patrol fleet across the full 40 nm reserve. The PSSA proposal as submitted to IMO in 2004 included a buffer of an additional 20 nm beyond the 40 nm marine reserve boundary, producing the 60 nm PSSA boundary measured from the archipelagic baselines that distinguishes the IMO regime from the domestic marine-reserve regime. The 60 nm offshore buffer corresponds approximately to the swept area available to a tanker drifting at 1 knot for 60 hours under typical Eastern Tropical Pacific conditions, providing operationally meaningful response time for a casualty inside the buffer to be intercepted before reaching the marine-reserve boundary.

The Galapagos Marine Reserve was further expanded in 2022 by Ecuadorian executive decree to add the Hermandad Marine Reserve of 60,000 square kilometres in the area between the original GMR boundary and the Costa Rican exclusive economic zone around Cocos Island, producing a current combined protected marine area of approximately 198,000 square kilometres. The Hermandad expansion is administered as an extension of the GMR but is outside the IMO PSSA boundary as designated in 2005.

MEPC.135(53) designation

The Galapagos PSSA proposal was submitted to MEPC by Ecuador as document MEPC 51/8/2 of 2004 and was considered at MEPC 51 (29 March to 2 April 2004), MEPC 52 (11 to 15 October 2004) and MEPC 53 (18 to 22 July 2005). The proposal was adopted at MEPC 53 by consensus as Resolution MEPC.135(53) on 22 July 2005, designating the Galapagos Archipelago as a Particularly Sensitive Sea Area with effect from 1 March 2006.

The Resolution specifies the boundary coordinates of the PSSA in latitude and longitude, the applicable Associated Protective Measures, and the relationship to the parallel NAV 51 decisions on the area-to-be-avoided and the deep-water route, which were adopted by the Sub-Committee on Safety of Navigation in June 2005 and confirmed at the Maritime Safety Committee (MSC) 80 in May 2005. The dual-track designation through MEPC and MSC reflects the standard IMO architecture for PSSAs whose APMs include SOLAS Chapter V routeing measures, with the routeing measures formally adopted under SOLAS regulation V/10 by MSC and the PSSA designation formally adopted under MARPOL by MEPC.

The implementing date of 1 March 2006 was selected to allow seven months for SOLAS Chapter V notification, chart-correction publication by national hydrographic offices, and route-planning system updates by commercial shipping operators. The first Notice to Mariners announcing the PSSA was published by the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office in November 2005 with subsequent notices by the United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, the Servicio Hidrografico del Ecuador (INOCAR), and the principal commercial chart publishers.

APM 1: PSSA boundary (60 nm offshore buffer)

The first Associated Protective Measure is the PSSA boundary itself, defined as the geographic perimeter inside which the package of protective measures applies. The Galapagos PSSA boundary is constructed by drawing an envelope at 60 nautical miles seaward of the archipelagic baselines connecting the outermost points of the archipelago, principally the western tip of Isabela Island, the south-western tip of Fernandina Island, the northern tip of Pinta Island, the northern tip of Darwin Island, the eastern tip of San Cristobal Island, and the southern tip of Espanola Island.

d_{\text{ATBA}} = 60 \text{ nm offshore buffer for ships} \geq 500 \text{ GT not in trade with Galapagos}

The boundary is published in the Resolution as a series of latitude and longitude coordinates and is reproduced on the Ecuadorian and US navigation charts covering the Eastern Tropical Pacific. The total enclosed area is approximately 230,000 square kilometres, comprising the archipelago itself, the 40 nm Galapagos Marine Reserve, and the 20 nm offshore buffer between the marine-reserve boundary and the PSSA boundary.

The PSSA boundary is the spatial scope inside which the routeing, reporting and discharge restrictions apply. It is not a navigational prohibition in itself. A vessel may transit the PSSA without entering the area-to-be-avoided if its course-line takes it through the corridor between the PSSA boundary and the ATBA boundary, although in practice this corridor is narrow and the deep-water route west of Isabela Island is the standard recommended track for permitted transits. The PSSA boundary also defines the area inside which the discharge restrictions under MARPOL Annex I, Annex IV, Annex V and the carriage restrictions under the IBC and IGC Codes apply with the strictness mandated for the protected area.

APM 2: Area-to-be-avoided (ATBA) for ships ≥500 GT

The second Associated Protective Measure is the binding area-to-be-avoided that surrounds the archipelago. The ATBA boundary follows the outer perimeter of the Galapagos Marine Reserve, which is approximately 40 nm seaward of the archipelagic baselines. The ATBA applies to all ships of 500 gross tonnage and above that are not engaged in trade with the archipelago, where trade with the archipelago is defined as the carriage of cargo or passengers to or from a Galapagos port, and is enforceable through SOLAS Chapter V Regulation 10 as a routeing measure adopted by IMO and reproduced on the published navigation charts.

The threshold of 500 GT is the standard threshold for many SOLAS Chapter V routeing measures and aligns with the gross-tonnage threshold for SOPEP under MARPOL Regulation 37, the threshold for ISM Code applicability for cargo ships, and the threshold for many port-state control inspection regimes. Vessels below 500 GT, principally artisanal fishing vessels, inter-island ferries and pleasure craft, are not subject to the ATBA but remain subject to the broader Galapagos National Park Service rules administered under Ecuadorian domestic law.

The ATBA does not apply to vessels engaged in genuine trade with the archipelago, principally the bunker-fuel tankers operating between Guayaquil and Puerto Baquerizo Moreno or Puerto Ayora, the cargo vessels delivering supplies to the inhabited islands, and the international cruise ships embarking or disembarking passengers at the authorised anchorages. These vessels are subject to a separate regime of pilotage, anchorage assignment, and onboard observer requirements administered by the Galapagos National Park Service in cooperation with the Ecuadorian Naval Force.

The exemption for vessels in trade with the archipelago is intentionally narrow. A vessel transiting through the Galapagos region as part of a wider voyage between, for example, the Panama Canal and the South Pacific, is not in trade with the archipelago and falls inside the ATBA prohibition irrespective of any commercial transaction. The Resolution and the supporting NAV documentation make this point explicit.

APM 3: Deep-water route west of Isabela

The third Associated Protective Measure is the deep-water route that runs north-south west of Isabela Island. The route is approximately 30 nm wide, centred on a line approximately 50 nm west of the western coast of Isabela, and extends from the northern PSSA boundary at approximately 1 degree 30 minutes north to the southern PSSA boundary at approximately 2 degrees 30 minutes south. The route is intended for vessels transiting through the broader PSSA region without entering the ATBA, principally tanker and bulk-carrier traffic on the great-circle route between the Panama Canal and the South Pacific that elects to take the western passage rather than the longer southern diversion.

The deep-water route is an IMO-recommended routeing measure under SOLAS Chapter V Regulation 10, not a mandatory route. A vessel may transit the corridor between the PSSA boundary and the ATBA on either side of the archipelago, subject to the prohibition on entering the ATBA. In practice, the deep-water route is preferred over the eastern passage because of the shorter great-circle distance to the Panama Canal, the absence of seamount hazards in the western route, and the reduced exposure to the Galapagos current system that complicates manoeuvring on the eastern side.

The depth profile under the deep-water route is consistently greater than 2,000 metres, well below the keel clearance of any conceivable surface vessel, and the route avoids the seamount chain that runs north-east from the western flank of Fernandina Island. The route is published on the Ecuadorian and US navigation charts and is reproduced in the IMO Ships’ Routeing publication.

APM 4: Hazardous-cargo transit prohibition

The fourth Associated Protective Measure is the prohibition on transit of hazardous cargoes through the ATBA except by Ecuadorian-flag vessels operating under licence from the Galapagos National Park Service. Hazardous cargoes for the purpose of the prohibition include crude oil, persistent oils as defined under MARPOL Annex I, noxious liquid substances of categories X and Y under MARPOL Annex II, packaged dangerous goods under the IMDG Code in quantities exceeding the limited-quantity thresholds, liquefied gases as carried under the IGC Code, and dangerous chemicals as carried under the IBC Code.

The prohibition is operationalised through three mechanisms. The first mechanism is the ATBA itself under SOLAS Chapter V Regulation 10, which physically excludes the ships above 500 GT not in trade with the archipelago and so excludes the international hazardous-cargo carriers from the inner protected area. The second mechanism is the licensing regime administered by the Galapagos National Park Service for the vessels in trade with the archipelago, which permits only Ecuadorian-flag tankers compliant with double-hull and SOPEP requirements and only quantities and product specifications consistent with the resident demand. The third mechanism is the broader Ecuadorian domestic regulation under the Special Law of 1998 and subsequent decrees, which prohibits the transhipment, storage and bulk handling of crude oil, products and gases in the Galapagos Province other than the regulated bunker-fuel and gas-cylinder deliveries to the inhabited islands.

The prohibition has been substantially effective. The pre-PSSA traffic of opportunistic transhipment, fishing-fleet bunkering at sea, and informal product deliveries inside the marine reserve has been suppressed, and the post-PSSA casualty record inside the ATBA is limited to a small number of incidents documented in the following sections.

2017 Polar Mist grounding incident

On 28 September 2017 the Polar Mist, a Russian-flag fishing vessel of approximately 750 GT operating in the broader Eastern Tropical Pacific tuna fishery, ran aground on a reef inside the Galapagos Marine Reserve approximately 12 nm north-west of San Cristobal Island. The vessel had entered the Galapagos Marine Reserve apparently in violation of the ATBA and the Ecuadorian fisheries enforcement regime, was intercepted by the Ecuadorian Naval Force patrol vessel based at Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, and during the boarding process struck the reef.

The vessel did not release significant quantities of fuel oil and the cargo of frozen tuna was transferred to a sister vessel and removed from the reserve. The vessel itself was salvaged and removed over a period of approximately three weeks under the supervision of the Galapagos National Park Service and the Ecuadorian Naval Force. The master and the fishing-master were prosecuted under Ecuadorian law for breach of the protected area and the vessel-owner paid a damages assessment of approximately 5.9 million US dollars to the Ecuadorian state.

The Polar Mist incident illustrates two operational realities of the PSSA enforcement regime. The first is that the ATBA and the marine reserve are enforced primarily through the Ecuadorian Naval Force and Coast Guard rather than through the flag-state of the offending vessel, which raises challenges with non-cooperative flag states. The second is that the casualty risk inside the ATBA is dominated by fishing vessels rather than by the international tanker and bulk-carrier traffic that the ATBA was principally designed to exclude. The fishing-vessel risk vector is addressed through the parallel CMAR initiative discussed below.

2019 LNG bunker barge accident off Baltra

On 28 December 2019 a barge carrying approximately 1,400 gallons of diesel fuel and being towed near the dock on Baltra Island capsized after a containerised cargo unit shifted on board. The incident occurred inside the inhabited-island operational zone where the ATBA does not apply but where the broader PSSA discharge restrictions are in force. The release of diesel was contained within several hours by the Galapagos National Park Service, the Ecuadorian Naval Force and the Charles Darwin Foundation field response team using booms and skimmers prepositioned at Baltra after the Jessica spill.

The biological impact was limited and concentrated on the immediate Baltra Channel area between Baltra and Santa Cruz, with no recorded mortality of marine iguanas, penguins or sea lions. The incident produced a renewed Ecuadorian government review of the bunker and gas-cylinder delivery regime and led to the issuance of more stringent stowage and securing rules for containerised dangerous goods on the inter-island barge fleet.

The Baltra incident, like the earlier Jessica incident, illustrates that the residual risk inside the PSSA is dominated by the regulated domestic supply chain to the inhabited islands rather than by international shipping. The PSSA framework addresses both vectors, the international vector through the ATBA and the deep-water route, and the domestic vector through the licensing regime for Ecuadorian-flag carriers and the Galapagos National Park Service rules.

EEZ of Ecuador and World Heritage interaction

The Galapagos PSSA sits inside the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of Ecuador as established under UNCLOS of 10 December 1982. Ecuador acceded to UNCLOS on 24 September 2012, after the PSSA designation, and the Ecuadorian EEZ is constructed from the archipelagic baselines and the mainland territorial sea baselines. The 60 nm PSSA boundary lies entirely within the EEZ which extends to 200 nm from the baselines.

The interaction with the EEZ is governed by Article 211 of UNCLOS, which establishes the framework for coastal state regulation of vessel-source pollution. Article 211 distinguishes between broad authority in the territorial sea (paragraph 4), generally accepted international rules in the EEZ (paragraph 5), and additional measures in clearly defined EEZ areas where specified conditions are met (paragraph 6). The PSSA framework operates principally under Article 211(5) in conjunction with SOLAS Chapter V Regulation 10 and MARPOL Article 4, with the IMO designation providing the international acceptability Article 211 requires for coastal-state measures applicable to foreign-flag vessels.

The interaction with the World Heritage Convention is one of mutual reinforcement. The 2010 delisting decision cited the PSSA as evidence that the maritime risk vector had been brought under an internationally enforceable regime, and Ecuadorian periodic reporting since 2010 continues to cite the PSSA as a core component of the management response. The IMO Marine Environment Division has cited the World Heritage status in subsequent PSSA proposals as evidence of recognised ecological value.

Ecuadorian Coast Guard and Naval Force monitoring

The PSSA is monitored and enforced by the Comando de Guardacostas (Coast Guard) of the Armada del Ecuador (Ecuadorian Naval Force) operating from the bases at Puerto Baquerizo Moreno on San Cristobal Island and Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz Island, with reach-back support from the mainland Coast Guard headquarters in Guayaquil. The Galapagos Coast Guard maintains a fleet of approximately 12 patrol vessels of varying sizes from rigid-hulled inflatable craft for inshore boarding operations to ocean-going patrol vessels of approximately 40 to 60 metres for the offshore PSSA buffer zone.

The Coast Guard operates a continuous monitoring regime fusing vessel Automatic Identification System (AIS) data, satellite Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) data for fishing vessels, dedicated maritime patrol aircraft sorties from the Ecuadorian Air Force, and surface patrols. The AIS coverage is provided through a network of shore-based receivers on the inhabited islands and through satellite AIS providers under contract to the Ministry of Defense. The fishing-vessel VMS regime is administered by the Subsecretaria de Recursos Pesqueros of the Ministry of Production and applies to all fishing vessels operating in the Ecuadorian EEZ.

The enforcement record since 2005 includes several thousand boarding inspections, approximately 50 to 80 prosecutions per year for fisheries and protected-area violations, and a small number of high-profile incidents involving foreign-flag fishing fleets discussed in subsequent sections. The principal practical limitation of the enforcement regime is the geographic scale, with the 60 nm PSSA buffer covering approximately 230,000 square kilometres and the wider Ecuadorian EEZ around the Galapagos covering more than 800,000 square kilometres, against a Coast Guard operational fleet of fewer than two dozen vessels.

CMAR Eastern Tropical Pacific Marine Corridor

The Eastern Tropical Pacific Marine Corridor (CMAR) is a regional marine cooperation initiative established in 2004 by the governments of Ecuador, Colombia, Costa Rica and Panama to coordinate the management of the four flagship marine protected areas of the Eastern Tropical Pacific, namely the Galapagos Marine Reserve (Ecuador), Malpelo Flora and Fauna Sanctuary (Colombia), Cocos Island National Park (Costa Rica) and Coiba National Park (Panama). The CMAR initiative is anchored in the San Jose Declaration of 2 April 2004 signed by the four state environment ministers and is administered through a rotating presidency and a small technical secretariat.

The CMAR initiative addresses the regional dimension of marine conservation in the Eastern Tropical Pacific, principally the migration corridors of hammerhead sharks, whale sharks, sea turtles, marlins and tunas between the four flagship areas, and the regional dimension of foreign-flag fishing pressure on the high seas outside the four EEZs. CMAR is an institutional framework for coordination rather than a treaty regime, and participating states retain individual sovereignty over their EEZs and protected-area regimes.

CMAR interacts with the Galapagos PSSA in three ways. The first is regional information-sharing on fishing-fleet movements, complementing the Coast Guard intelligence picture before foreign-flag fleet arrivals at the EEZ boundary. The second is joint patrol cooperation between the four navies, producing occasional combined operations along the Galapagos-Cocos and Galapagos-Malpelo corridors. The third is the diplomatic platform for joint engagement with distant-water fishing nations on the high-seas fishery outside the four EEZs.

The 2022 declaration by Ecuador and Colombia of expanded marine reserves around the Galapagos (the Hermandad expansion) and around Malpelo (the Yurupari-Malpelo expansion) was prepared within the CMAR framework, although the formal designations were made under domestic Ecuadorian and Colombian law respectively.

2024 Ecuador / China fishing-fleet dispute

The Eastern Tropical Pacific is a major fishing ground for the Chinese distant-water fleet, principally for jumbo flying squid (Dosidicus gigas) and for tuna and tuna-like species in association with the squid fishery. The Chinese fleet operating in the high seas immediately outside the Ecuadorian EEZ around the Galapagos has grown from approximately 50 vessels in the early 2010s to several hundred vessels by the early 2020s, with peak activity in the southern hemisphere winter (July to October).

The 2020 fishing season produced a major diplomatic incident when an estimated 350 to 400 Chinese squid jiggers operated immediately outside the Galapagos EEZ for several months with cumulative fishing effort exceeding 70,000 vessel-days. The Ecuadorian Naval Force intercepted several incursions into the PSSA buffer, and the Ecuadorian government raised the issue at foreign-minister bilateral talks with China and at the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) and the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organisation (SPRFMO).

The 2024 season produced a renewed dispute. A Chinese-flag squid jigger was apprehended approximately 8 nm inside the Galapagos EEZ in August 2024 and the boarding revealed false AIS identifiers used to disguise fleet origin. The vessel was prosecuted under Ecuadorian law and the case was raised with the Chinese authorities and at the IATTC. The Chinese government cooperated and committed to renewed fleet discipline, but the underlying jurisdictional question of high-seas fishery management outside the PSSA remains unresolved.

The 2024 dispute illustrates that the PSSA is one component of a broader regional jurisdictional regime including the Ecuadorian EEZ, the high seas, the IATTC and SPRFMO, and bilateral diplomatic channels with distant-water fishing nations. The PSSA does not regulate fishing on the high seas outside the EEZ, but the buffer zone and the enforcement architecture provide the operational platform for the Ecuadorian response to incursions.

Commercial impacts: 150-200 nm diversion, Panama Canal route

The commercial impact of the Galapagos PSSA on international shipping is concentrated on the tanker and bulk-carrier traffic on the great-circle route between the Panama Canal and the South Pacific, principally the Chile-Peru-Ecuador iron-ore, copper-concentrate, fishmeal and grain trades, and the smaller tanker traffic to and from the western coast of South America.

\Delta T_{\text{diversion}} \approx 12 \text{-} 18 \text{ hours additional steaming for Panama Canal-Pacific NW transits}

A vessel routing from the Panama Canal to a southern South American port on the great-circle has a notional track that passes within 30 to 80 nm of the eastern Galapagos. The ATBA, with the 40 nm boundary measured from the archipelagic baselines, requires that the same vessel divert by approximately 60 to 80 nm to the east of the great-circle, producing a typical voyage extension of 150 to 200 nm and an additional steaming time of approximately 12 to 18 hours at typical bulk-carrier and tanker service speeds of 12 to 14 knots. The fuel-cost impact at typical IFO bunker prices is approximately 10 to 25 tonnes of bunker fuel per voyage, equivalent to several thousand US dollars at 2025 prices.

The traffic on the great-circle route between the Panama Canal and the United States West Coast (Los Angeles, Oakland, Seattle, Vancouver) generally lies well to the north of the Galapagos and is not affected by the ATBA. The traffic on the great-circle route between the Panama Canal and Australasia or East Asia generally passes well to the south of the Galapagos and is also not significantly affected. The principal affected traffic is the Panama Canal to Chile-Peru route and the Panama Canal to South Pacific great-circle route.

International cruise ships visiting the Galapagos are subject to a separate regime under the Galapagos National Park Service rules. The total number of authorised cruise berths is capped at approximately 70 vessels of varying sizes from small expedition vessels of around 20 berths to medium-sized cruise ships of around 100 berths, with the largest authorised vessel being approximately 100 metres in length and approximately 5,000 GT. International cruise vessels exceeding the size threshold and operating on the southern Pacific itinerary that touches Ecuadorian and Peruvian ports are not authorised to enter the Galapagos Marine Reserve and must remain outside the ATBA.

The bunkering of the resident inter-island fleet, the cruise fleet and the inhabited-island diesel power generation continues to be supplied by Ecuadorian-flag tankers operating on the Guayaquil-San Cristobal-Santa Cruz triangle under the licensing regime. The frequency is approximately one delivery per week per inhabited island, with double-hull tankers of 1,500 to 3,000 deadweight tonnes carrying combined IFO and diesel cargoes.

Comparison with Sabana-Camaguey (Cuba) PSSA

The Sabana-Camaguey Archipelago PSSA of Cuba was designated by Resolution MEPC.74(40) of 25 September 1997 as the second PSSA in the world after the Great Barrier Reef and the first in the Caribbean. The Sabana-Camaguey is a chain of approximately 2,500 cays and islands extending along the north-central coast of Cuba over approximately 465 km, with a marine area of approximately 75,000 square kilometres and a complex shallow-shelf ecosystem of mangroves, coral reefs and seagrass beds.

The two PSSAs share structural features. Both are tropical archipelagic systems with high endemism and significant socio-economic dependency on a healthy marine environment. Both are designated through MEPC resolutions paired with SOLAS Chapter V routeing measures. Both rely on single coastal-state administration rather than the multi-state coordinating architecture of the Wadden Sea. Both face residual risk of fishing-vessel incursions that the tanker and bulk-carrier focus of the ATBA does not directly address.

The two PSSAs differ in material respects. The Sabana-Camaguey covers a larger maritime area but has greater commercial-shipping density due to Florida Strait traffic, the Cuban north-coast oil trade, and the industrial port at Nuevitas. The Galapagos PSSA covers a more remote area with smaller resident population, lower shipping density, and a stronger international conservation profile through World Heritage status. The Sabana-Camaguey ATBA architecture is more permeable, with several recommended tracks through the protected area, while the Galapagos ATBA is a binding exclusion outside the deep-water route. The Cuban regime has operated under United States embargo constraints that limit international engagement, while the Galapagos has benefited from sustained engagement by IMO, UNESCO, ITOPF and the wider conservation community.

The post-designation casualty record is comparable. Sabana-Camaguey has recorded several minor groundings and fishing-vessel incidents but no major spill; Galapagos has recorded Polar Mist, the Baltra barge incident and other minor events but no major post-designation spill. The combined record validates the PSSA framework as effective for high-value tropical archipelagic systems.

Formula, assumptions, and limits

Formula

The Galapagos PSSA boundary geometry is constructed by an envelope at a fixed offshore distance from the archipelagic baselines:

d_{\text{PSSA}} = 60 \text{ nm from archipelagic baselines}

d_{\text{ATBA}} = 40 \text{ nm from archipelagic baselines (= GMR boundary)}

d_{\text{buffer}} = d_{\text{PSSA}} - d_{\text{ATBA}} = 20 \text{ nm}

The voyage-diversion impact for tanker and bulk-carrier traffic is approximated by:

\Delta D = 2 \cdot d_{\text{ATBA}} \cdot (1 - \cos \theta) \approx 150 \text{-} 200 \text{ nm}

where theta is the angle between the original great-circle track and the diversion track around the ATBA boundary. At typical service speeds of 13 knots:

\Delta T = \Delta D / V \approx 12 \text{-} 18 \text{ hours}

Derivation

The 60 nm PSSA buffer derivation is operational rather than analytical. The 40 nm Galapagos Marine Reserve boundary was established under the 1998 Special Law and reflects the original 1986 reserve boundary plus an extension consistent with Ecuadorian domestic policy. The 20 nm offshore buffer between the GMR boundary and the PSSA boundary reflects the operationally meaningful response time available to the Ecuadorian Coast Guard to intercept a casualty drifting at 1 to 2 knots toward the GMR, allowing approximately 10 to 20 hours of warning. The combined 60 nm buffer corresponds approximately to one vessel-day of drift at 2.5 knots and to one patrol-vessel response sortie from the inhabited-island bases.

The voyage-diversion derivation follows the standard great-circle plus envelope-avoidance geometry. A vessel on a great-circle track tangent to a circular ATBA of radius 40 nm centred on the archipelago must follow the ATBA perimeter for an arc-distance proportional to the angular extent of the original tangency, plus the entry and exit deviation legs. For a typical Panama-Chile track passing within 60 nm of the great-circle tangent point, the deviation distance is approximately 150 nm assuming 80 percent of the great-circle is preserved, scaling up to 200 nm for tracks passing closer to the tangent point.

Assumptions

The principal assumptions underlying the PSSA architecture are six. The first is that international tanker and bulk-carrier traffic is the dominant casualty risk vector, justifying the ATBA threshold at 500 GT. The second is that the Galapagos National Park Service licensing regime is sufficient to manage the residual risk from authorised domestic traffic, including the bunker tanker fleet and the cruise fleet. The third is that the Ecuadorian Coast Guard and Naval Force monitoring is sufficient to detect and respond to incursions through the PSSA buffer before they reach the GMR boundary. The fourth is that the deep-water route west of Isabela Island provides an operationally attractive transit corridor that draws traffic away from the eastern approach to the archipelago. The fifth is that the SOLAS Chapter V Regulation 10 routeing-measure framework provides the international legal basis for the ATBA on foreign-flag vessels. The sixth is that the broader UNCLOS Article 211 framework provides the EEZ regulatory basis for the PSSA discharge restrictions and reporting requirements.

Worked example

A Capesize bulk carrier of 180,000 dwt loaded with iron ore in Itaqui (Brazil) bound for Qingdao via the Panama Canal exits at Balboa. The Balboa-Qingdao great-circle passes roughly 90 nm south of the Galapagos and does not cross the 40 nm ATBA, so no diversion is required. The same vessel on a return ballast leg from Balboa to San Antonio (Chile) passes approximately 30 nm east of the archipelago and crosses the ATBA. It must divert 30 to 50 nm east, adding 60 to 100 nm and 5 to 8 hours at 13 knots, with a bunker impact of 5 to 12 tonnes.

Edge cases and limits

The PSSA framework has several edge cases. The first is the vessel transiting in distress or in genuine emergency, which under SOLAS Chapter V Regulation 10 and the IMO Safety of Life at Sea framework is permitted to enter the ATBA if the alternative is the loss of the vessel or crew. The second is the vessel engaging in transhipment, lightering or fuel transfer immediately outside the ATBA boundary, which is technically compliant with the routeing measure but raises operational risk and is the subject of separate guidance. The third is the small commercial vessel below 500 GT, which is not bound by the ATBA but remains subject to the broader Ecuadorian protected-area regime. The fourth is the foreign-flag fishing vessel operating on the high seas immediately outside the Ecuadorian EEZ, which is outside both the PSSA and the EEZ but is the principal source of incursion risk. The fifth is the Ecuadorian-flag bunker tanker operating under licence inside the ATBA, which is exempt from the routeing measure but is subject to the strictest pilotage, double-hull and SOPEP requirements under Ecuadorian domestic law.

Regulatory basis

The regulatory basis is fivefold. The IMO PSSA designation is Resolution MEPC.135(53) of 22 July 2005. The supporting routeing measures are adopted under SOLAS Chapter V Regulation 10 and were confirmed by the Sub-Committee on Safety of Navigation NAV 51 in June 2005 and by the Maritime Safety Committee MSC 80 in May 2005. The discharge restrictions are anchored in MARPOL Annex I, Annexes II to V, and Annex VI. The Ecuadorian domestic basis is the Special Law for the Conservation and Sustainable Development of the Province of Galapagos of 18 March 1998 with subsequent regulations, the Galapagos National Park Service operational rules, and the Ecuadorian Maritime Authority DIRNEA decrees on Galapagos operations. The international legal context is UNCLOS Articles 211 and 234, Article 192 (general obligation to protect the marine environment), and the World Heritage Convention of 1972 with the 1978 Galapagos inscription.

Common errors

Five common errors recur in commercial route planning and operational practice. The first is treating the PSSA boundary at 60 nm and the ATBA boundary at 40 nm as identical, with consequent confusion about which restrictions apply where. The second is assuming that the ATBA applies only to crude-oil tankers, when in fact it applies to all ships of 500 GT and above not in trade with the archipelago irrespective of cargo. The third is assuming that the deep-water route west of Isabela is mandatory rather than recommended, leading to operational rigidity in route planning. The fourth is failing to distinguish between the IMO PSSA discharge restrictions under MARPOL and the Ecuadorian domestic restrictions under the Special Law of 1998, which are stricter on bunker quality, ballast-water exchange and grey-water discharge. The fifth is underestimating the diversion-cost impact for southern Pacific great-circle tracks, with operational practice often defaulting to a 100 nm clearance rather than the 60 nm minimum, producing avoidable voyage-extension cost.

References

References include the IMO PSSA portal, Resolution MEPC.135(53), the Revised PSSA Guidelines under Resolution A.982(24), the UNESCO World Heritage and MAB inscriptions for the Galapagos, the Galapagos National Park Service portal, the Charles Darwin Foundation, the ITOPF Jessica case study, the IMO ships routeing portal, the CMAR portal, and the Armada del Ecuador and Ministerio del Ambiente portals. Full citation links appear in the frontmatter.