The 1982—83 El Niño: some of its consequences for Galápagos wildlife

Abstract

The warm event, El Niño, that struck the eastern equatorial Pacific in 1982–83 was the strongest recorded in the last 100 years. Coastal people suffered floods, crop losses and failure of fish catches as the ocean waters grew warmer and the rainfall increased more than tenfold. Wildlife was affected in many different ways. The author has been working as a Naturalist Guide within the Galápagos National Park for the past three and a half years and he is particularly interested in the interactions of seabirds with their environment.