Word: isabela
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...human population explosion has brought in hundreds of non-native plant and animal species that are threatening to devastate endemic life. Alcedo Volcano on Isabela Island--home to more than a third of all the Galapagos giant tortoises--is approaching ecological collapse as a result of an infestation of goats and burros. The goat population is so large (50,000 to 75,000) that between 100 and 150 kids are born every day. The goats knock down cacti and trees and munch on the vegetation on which the tortoises depend, while the burros trample the tortoise nests. Elsewhere on Isabela...
Officials found large numbers of fishing camps on national parkland, particularly on the shores of Isabela and Fernandina, which scientists consider the world's largest pristine island. Unlicensed fishermen had cut down and burned protected mangroves (home of the rare mangrove finch) to dry their sea cucumbers and had slaughtered dozens of giant tortoises for food. Reacting to the overfishing, the government shut down the season a month early, triggering the protests last winter. But illegal harvests are continuing--and now seahorses and pipefish, valued in Asia for their purported aphrodisiac and medicinal value, are being taken too. A small...
...Navidad in Haiti. When he came back for them on his second voyage, they had all been killed by the Lucayo tribesmen. Archaeologists at this first Spanish settlement in the Americas have dug out some shards of Venetian glass and the bones of a 15th century pig. At Isabela in the Dominican Republic, where Columbus founded Spain's first colony on his second voyage in 1493, some evidence is turning up about the layout of the town, its artifacts (including a crucifix, possibly the first in the New World) and the colonists' interaction with the natives...