The Giant Tortoise and Over-exploitation

Overexploitation is a huge problem for wildlife because as the fishing and hunting industry continues to develop and improve animals and plants are being hunted or farmed faster than they can reproduce which is causing them to become extremely endangered or even go extinct. Hundreds of species of birds are collected for sport, food, or into the caged bird pet-trade were millions of birds are traded internationally each year. Amphibians and reptiles are other examples of breeds that are over-farmed and traded as pets. People have hunted mammal species for food, sport, and for horns and antlers, mammals are also trapped into the pet-trade, zoos, and biomedical research. Today illegal hunting still threatens many species including large mammal such as tigers, rhinos, bears and primates. Most importantly, are invertebrates, which 75% of all known animal species are, like oysters, scorpions, crabs, and animals like them are being over-harvested for food, pet-trade, and jewelry.

In the past, the Galapagos giant tortoises suffered a large decline in their population due to over-exploitation of humans. They were hunted for their meat and oil and a lot of their natural habitats were destroyed to create farmlands. The biggest problem this species is facing right now is that an invasive species of goats encroaching on and destroying a lot of their natural environment and making it almost impossible for them to live there. However, there are a lot of efforts being made right now to remove a lot of those goats from the islands. Aldabra giant tortoises were also hunted for their meat and oil almost to the brink of extinction. In the 17th and 19th century, sailors would capture them and keep them on their ships for food, since they required very low maintenance and provided plenty of meat for the crew, because of this the tortoise is the only one of the 18 giant tortoises species that has not gone extinct due to overexploitation. In order to bring these tortoises back from the brink of dying out, captive breeding and release efforts from conservation zoos have allowed them to be reintroduced into their natural habitats, even though they are still considered vulnerable they are now being protected by different conservation efforts.

The best way to stop overexploitation is through legislation, community efforts, and more national parks. Although there are already some policies, laws, and legislations regarding overexploitation in some countries, and globally, there needs to be more for the natural environment to have proper protection from the expansion of humans. Now it is all too easy for organizations and individuals to find a loophole in the system, or just pay enough money so that they don't have to obey the laws. There need to be tighter policies regarding the exploitation of natural resources (especially finite resources) for reasons as unnecessary as tourism. Community groups such as Friends of the Bluff and LandCare assist government organizations such as DEPI (the Department of Environmental & Primary Resources) and Parks Victoria in promoting widespread community resources on many fronts, including overexploitation. This, in turn, makes the general public less likely to support the building of a gigantic new tourist resort on environmentally protected land & will help address the issue of overexploitation. Although there are many successful governments funded and volunteer organizations that assist in tackling this issue, there still needs to be more. One of the main ways to stop overexploitation at the source is to create national and marine national parks. These parks are set up to protect native species and the biodiverse ecosystem of the area. Inside these parks, many of the activities that lead to overexploitation and land degradation (e.g. overfishing, logging, construction) are illegal. By doing this, overexploitation levels will decrease greatly, which can only be good news for those areas affected by this problem. National Park, which is situated in Port Phillip Bay between Point Lonsdale and Point Napean and is protected due to its hugely biodiverse ecosystem.