GALAPAGOS PEOPLE AT WORK

About eighty percent of people who live in the Galapagos Islands work in tourism. Of these, the majority serve as crew on the hundred or so vessels that transport tourists around the islands, others work in the land-based service industry — mostly hotel or restaurant staff. Around 500 work as naturalist-guides, trained at the Charles Darwin Research Station (CDRS) on Puerto Ayora. This is considered by locals to be the most prestigious job to which they can aspire. Other top-tier work includes science research (mostly at CDRS), working for the Galapagos National Park Service (GNPS), or ownership and management of tour operator companies, dive shops, hotels or restaurants. Jobs outside of tourism are almost entirely limited to the fishing industry or farming. A significant proportion of the people living in Puerto Baquerizo (the islands' administrative capital) are in government administration or the Ecuadorian navy, at the naval base there.