Untreated sewage in Galápagos creates antibiotic-resistant bacteria reservoirs

In the waters surrounding one of the world's most celebrated sanctuaries of natural isolation, scientists have discovered that human infrastructure — or the absence of it — is quietly rewriting the microbial order. A mobile laboratory deployed across sixteen marine sites in the Galápagos over two years has revealed that untreated sewage flowing into the ocean around San Cristóbal is breeding multidrug-resistant bacteria, including strains capable of evading last-resort antibiotics. The archipelago's ecological fame has long rested on what it keeps out; this study illuminates what it is now, in