Spanish explorers called them Las Encantadas, the Enchanted Isles, and Charles Darwin used his studies of the islands as the foundation for his theory of natural selection. The Galapagos are among the world's most important scientific treasures, a group of volcanic islands surrounded by deserted beaches and inhabited by unique varieties of giant tortoise, lizards, and birds.
    Yet life on this United Nations world heritage site has turned sour. Battles have broken out between  fishermen and conservationists. Ecuador, which owns the islands, has sent a naval patrol (º£¾üѲÂ߶Ó) to put down disturbances.
    The controversial director of the Galapagos National Park—which controls 97 percent of Galapagos land and the reserve extending to 40 miles offshore—has been fired, while an air of uneasy tension hangs over the islands, as the islanders prepare for election when they pick their representatives in Ecuador’s national assembly.
    “It’s a very tense situation,” said Leonor Stjepic, director of the London-based Galapagos Conservation Trust, which raises money to help projects on the islands. “We are watching it with concern.”