Saturday January 20 6:28 PM ET
Boat
Leaks Oil in Ecuador's Pristine Galapagos
By Amy
Taxin
QUIT0,
Ecuador (Reuters) - A boat carrying fuel to Ecuador's Galapagos Islands that
ran aground four days ago is leaking oil into the ecologically sensitive waters
near the famous islands, the government said on Saturday.
The spill
has already affected animals including sea lions and pelicans and volunteers
are on standby to clean up and rescue them, an ecologist said.
Adm.
Gonzalo Vega, director of Ecuador's Merchant Marine in Guayaquil, said the oil
spill began late on Friday when a pipe in the boat's machine room burst,
fouling the water near the islands that boast unique marine and land creatures
such as iguanas and giant tortoises.
He said a
second and potentially more harmful leak occurred early on Saturday, when about
1,000 gallons of a heavy fuel called IFO 120 began to spill from the craft.
``That (the
IFO 120) is the dangerous part. The worst thing that would happen is that the
boat would burst entirely and it would all spill,'' he told Reuters. ``If we
manage to unload the majority today, the situation will be under control.''
The
Galapagos Islands, located 600 miles from the Ecuadorean shore, were visited by
British naturalist Charles Darwin in 1835. His observations of island life led
to the development of his theories on natural selection.
The
Galapagos National Park preserves the creatures and their natural habitat,
where they have evolved for thousands of years in isolation and with little
human intervention.
The boat,
named ``Jessica'', was carrying 160,000 gallons of diesel and about 80,000
gallons of IFO 120. It ran aground half a mile from the Galapagos' main port on
San Cristobal Island on Tuesday.
It was on
its way to service an Ecuadorean naval operation and a private tour boat
operator, according to a government spokeswoman.
Protective
Fence Set Up
The
Ecuadorean Merchant Marines have controlled the leak by setting up a fence to
trap the fuel and applying chemicals to neutralize it. They are currently
unloading the fuel in the tanks that Jessica was carrying.
U.S. Coast
Guard clean-up crews were to arrive late on Saturday and early on Sunday at the
request of President Gustavo Noboa, the government said. The 10-person response
team will focus on removing oil from the ship and provide advice on response
and clean-up.
But sea
lions, pelicans and blue-footed boobies, animals endemic to the islands, have
already been affected by the spill, said Maria Eugenia Proano, representative
of the Charles Darwin Scientific Station on San Cristobal Island.
``The
biological situation is what most worries us and there has already been an
impact,'' she told Reuters.
The station
has trained groups of volunteers to go out and wash the animals to rid them of
the fuel, which sticks to their feathers and skin, and evacuate them when
necessary, she said.
This isn't
the first time Galapagos has suffered an oil spill, Mario Garcia, director of
Ecuador's Foundation for Ecologic Studies, told Reuters.
``In my
opinion, there's a serious problem in Galapagos in everything that has to do
with military and port control,'' he said. ``This isn't the first time there's
been a diesel or fuel spill.''