The international conservation organization, Oceana, and the National Geographic Society scheduled an expedition to the Salas y Gómez Island in March of 2010.   The scientific team, with their guide, Michel García, a diver from Easter Island, were able to record the underwater life that exists at depths of more than 100 meters (330 feet) with a submarine robot.  At that time, the scientists were able to verify the presence of a wealth of life and that some species – such as sharks, lobsters, fish and algae – are notoriously more abundant than on Easter Island, only 415 km. (260 miles) away.

 

Both organizations, together with the Fisheries Commission of the Chilean Senate, made recommendations to President Sebastián Piñera for the creation of a marine park of 150,000 km² (57,900 sq. miles) surrounding the Salas y Gómez Island, one of the most pristine areas still remaining in the ocean.  With this park, 19.5% of the Easter Island marine ecosystem, of which Salas y Gómez is part, would be protected.  In marine parks, the only activities which are permitted are observation and extraction for authorized scientific and research purposes in order to safeguard the diversity of species and their habitat.  This opens possiblitites for tourism from Easter Island for diving and marine observation.

The island is already a nature sanctuary since 1976.  Nonetheless, Chile has decided that it is better to declare the ecosystem a Marine Park or Reserve.  According to Michel García, this would be of great benefit for Easter Island.  “Salas y Gómez is a nursery for the same Rapa Nui ecosystem and this would be, additionally, a legal international weapon to control the foreign factory ships which we know are fishing without any controls around Salas y Gómez Island.  The over-exploitation of the marine resources on Easter Island is serious.  The closed seasons imposed by the National Fisheries Service are not respected.  The Rapanui feel that they are the lords of their island and don’t accept regulations.  The closed season on lobster between November and April isn’t respected by fishermen nor by the owners of hotels and restaurants.  We shouldn’t forget that Rapa Nui doesn’t have any other reserve for flora or fauna than Salas y Gomez.  According to some scientific studies (Atalante 2004), Rapa Nui is in an area with the lowest density of plankton of the entire Pacific Basin and, therefore, very poor in variety of species and marine life.  As an example, there are only 65 families of fish registered for Easter Island compared with over 300 families that are found in Polynesia in general.  Nonetheless, in spite of the limited variety in species, some are very abundant on the ocean floor.