Anchor Free Ecuador is an initiative in collaboration with the Minister of Environment and the Minister of Tourism. In January, 2022 we installed 12 mooring buoys in 2 marine protected areas; the Machalilla National Park and the El Pelado Marine Reserve. The buoys were built with a unique design from CONMAR.
Coral ecosystems are not only the main source of natural protein for humans, but they are also extremely important for the tourism industry, which when unregulated, it may present various stressors to the country’s marine ecosystems. Anchoring is one of the main threats from this industry.
The lack of a mooring system results on anchoring over the sea floor, where different benthic communities and coral areas are found. The extent of the damage may vary from partial to a complete loss of the ecosystem, which may take decades to recover.
