No Damage Reported in Galapagos after Tsunami Alert

Residents evacuated to higher ground. Some big waves, but no damage. Tsunami alert lifted.

QUITO (Reuters) - Residents and tourists on Ecuador’s Galapagos islands moved to high ground on Saturday after a massive earthquake in Chile generated tsunami warnings along South America’s Pacific coast.

Witnesses on the islands said that waves in the area were unusually strong, but the government of Ecuador lifted a tsunami warning that had been issued for the Galapagos.

“As a preventive measure, there has been an evacuation (of people to high ground),” Edwin Pinto, an official at Ecuador’s Oceanographic Institute, told reporters.

The evacuees were expected to remain away from low areas of the islands through Saturday afternoon, officials said.

Sources for political analysis paper

Invasive Species outline: http://www.galapagos.org/2008/index.php?id=110

Avian diseases: http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol9/iss1/art5/inline.html#CurrentAvianDiseaseProblemsOnTheGalápagos

http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol9/iss1/art5/

Photo Practice

A combination of finding my dad's old film SLR, being snowbound in DC for a bunch of days, and of course, some gentle prodding from Larry got me off my butt and out into the snow to practice my bush-league photo skills. Here's a few of the non-awful shots I got:

The Potomac, GW Parkway and Georgetown from Key Bridge

10th Street, SE

So that's 4 decent ones out of about 50 photos...hopefully my average will improve before we get down to the Galapagos!

Till next time,

Ryan

Project Proposal

The main product of the class is a web-based multimedia or film project highlighting one aspect of the Galapagos' environmental issues. Below is the first draft of our proposal for the project.

Working Title: A Place to Graze

Proposed Subject/Thesis: The Galapagos Giant Tortoise breeding program has been successful; however, much more work still needs to be done. While otherwise rich in multimedia content, the specific page for the breeding program is lacking, hampering its effectiveness as a tool to attract new donors and keep current donors appraised of the program’s progress.

We propose to develop a self-contained video piece outlining the history, successes and future challenges of the Galapagos Conservancy, specifically its breeding programs for inclusion in the website, as well as for visual aids in presentations to potential donors.

Audience: Current and prospective donors to the Galapagos Conservancy

Methods and Presentation: In order to prepare for this project, we intend to make contact with and interview key personnel at the Galapagos Conservancy, the Charles Darwin Foundation, and possibly the national park. We will also pursue traditional research on invasive species in the Galapagos, and endemic species at risk through academic articles and books.

The piece will consist of a ccombination of video and still photography, including interviews, point of view video touring, and background footage of the islands.

Notes: Although the focus of this project is primarily on one of the Conservancy's programs (the Tortoise breeding), we intend to film aspects of other ongoing Conservancy projects focused on mitigating the damage done to the islands by invasive species (including goat eradication, marine iguana breeding, etc), so we have options when creating our final piece.

Beagle Productions

Welcome to the blog of Beagle Productions!

We're a group of students enrolled in American University's Practice of Environmentalism course, a multi-disciplinary class designed to bring together students of environmental science, international politics and media production, with the goal of communicating the science of conservation to a wider audience. We'll be focusing on the Galapagos, an archipelago renowned worldwide for its endemic wildlife, as well as the serious environmental issues stemming from human activity.

Beagle Productions Roster:

Ryan Delaney: MS, Environmental Science

Alyssa Frederick: BS, Marine Biology

Jesse Goldberg: MA, Film

Andy Oetman: MA, Global Environmental Politics

Stay tuned for our project proposal, multimedia content and more witty prose!