A 17-day protest strike by over 300 park rangers in the Galapagos ended, when the Ecuadorian Environmental Ministry fired Galapagos Park Director Fausto Cepeda, who the protesting park rangers claim was a political appointment more concerned with protecting the rights of fishermen, and resent the replacement of Edwin Naula, the previous director who was a distinguished biologist. He was dismissed after tourism, the islands' main source of revenue, was halted by the strike, accompanied by a retinue of club-wielding fishermen past strikers. A park biologist will in the interim take over as director until a new leader can be worked out with environmental groups.