Estudio de la calidad de las aguas costeras insulares en la Provincia de Galápagos

El presente trabajo se orienta para conocer la calidad actual de las aguas costeras insulares de cinco Bahías del Archipiélago: Naufragio, Academia, Darwin, Puerto Velasco Ibarra y Puerto Villamil.

The evaluation of the obtained results about a water quality study performed on five bays of Galapagos Islands, Naufragio Bay (San Cristóbal Island), Academia Bay (Santa Cruz island), Velasco Ibarra Port (Santa María island), General Villamil Port ( Santa Isabela Island) and Darwin Bay (Genovesa island), during September and October, 1999; considering the behavior and distribution of different parameters on surface and ten meters depth waters is presented. The obtained results show the presence of relatively cold waters uniformly distributed on the research area, on surface and ten meters depth waters; except on Darwin bay where the temperature raised up to 23°C. Salinity shows 35UPS as a maximun value on Naufragio Bay and lower values on Santa María island, Isabela island,and Darwin Bay, with values between 34 and 34.7 UPS; while on Academia Bay, the lowest value (32.5 UPS), was detected. These lower values were probably due to the rain experimented at the sampling time. Well oxigenated surface waters were detected, with values between 4.0 and 5.5 ml/l with the maximum concentration on the Isabela Island area. The inorganic nutrients (fosfate, silicate, nitrate and nitrite), showed characteristic values of the season and the studied area, with values between (0.05-0.26, 4.0 - 17, 2.0 - 23 and 0.2 - 1.4 ug-at/l), respectively. The highest concentrations were observed on ten meters depth and near the coast waters, while the lower values were detected far from the coastal waters. Low concentrations of dissolved and dispersed oil hydrocarbons 1.14 - 2.43 ug/l u. Crisene), with a maximum located on Academia Bay, were detected. It's important to point out that the detected concentrations are under permissible levels for free contamination waters and for marine life. About microbiological research, the higher concentrations of both, total and fecal coliforms (240 - 15 NMP/100ml, at Las Ninfas area (Academia bay), followed by Naufragio bay (16 - 8.8 NMP/100ml) were detected, while the lower concentrations (2 - 5 NMP/100ml) on Santa María Island, Isabela Island and Darwin Bay, were observed.

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