Santa Fe Island (Spanish: Isla Santa Fé), also known as Barrington Island, is a small island of 24 square kilometres (9.3 sq mi) which lies in the middle of the Galápagos Archipelago in Ecuador. Visitor access is by a wet landing in Barrington Bay on the northeastern side of the island.
The island used to have its own, so far undescribed, species of Galápagos tortoise, the endemicSanta Fe tortoise, which became extinct in the mid 19th century because of overexploitation by whalers and settlers. For over 150 years the island had no tortoises. Genetic examination of tortoise bones found on the island showed that its closest relative was the Hood Island giant tortoise (Chelonoidis hoodensis) from Española Island (formerly Hood Island). Following a decision made at an international workshop on giant tortoises in 2012, a program was initiated to reestablish a tortoise population on Santa Fe, using the Española Island species as an ecological analogue, or substitute. The tortoises are ecologically important for the island ecosystem, especially for their role as seed dispersers. Between 2015 and 2021 the Santa Fe Tortoise Project successfully introduced some 700 juvenile and 31 subadult Española tortoises to Santa Fe to complete the ecological restoration program (which had begun in the 1970s with the eradication of feral goats) for the island.[2][6]
