Wednesday January 24
11:27 PM ET
Crew
of Leaky Galapagos Boat Charged
By
GONZALO SOLANO, Associated Press Writer
PUERTO BAQUERIZO, Galapagos
Islands (AP) - As rangers worked Wednesday to net wildlife stained and dazed by
an oil spill, authorities arrested the captain of the leaking tanker and
pledged stronger protections for these islands renowned for their unique
animals and birds.
Capt. Tarquino Arevalo and
13 crewmen from the tanker Jessica were ordered confined to a military base on
San Cristobal island pending formal charges, Merchant Marines Vice Adm. Gonzalo
Vega said Wednesday.
Arevalo and the tanker's
owners could face two to four years in prison if convicted of negligence or
crimes against the environment. Ecuadorean Environment Minister Rodolfo Rendon
said he was pushing to have them all jailed pending the investigation.
Officials have said the
Jessica ran aground after a signal buoy was mistaken for a lighthouse. They
blamed human error - an allegation Arevalo admitted to in an interview with the
British Broadcasting Corp. He said he confused two landmarks, leading to the
accident.
``It's very, very hard,''
he said in the interview aired Wednesday and posted on the BBC Web site. ``I
know what's happened but what can I do now?''
Arevalo said he has not
slept since the accident and knows the islanders blame him. ``If they want to
kill, kill me, but I need a little peace,'' he said.
Efforts to reach Arevalo
for more comment were unsuccessful Wednesday.
The arrests come eight days
after the Jessica ran aground off San Cristobal Island, one of the Galapagos
chain. Over the days that followed, the ship leaked at least 185,000 gallons of
diesel fuel into this fragile ecosystem, one populated by species found nowhere
else in the world and an inspiration for Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.
Only one pelican and two
seagulls are known to have died. But dozens of other birds and marine animals -
sea lions, seagulls, blue-footed boobies and albatrosses - also have been
affected, officials at the Galapagos' sprawling wildlife park said.
And while scientists here
say the spill could have been much worse, the long-term environmental damage to
the islands 600 miles off the mainland remains unclear.
``We are trying at all
costs to prevent the fuel from reaching land,'' said biologist Harry Reyes, who
helped set up a perimeter of buoys around the spill.
One environmental workers
said Wednesday that the spill was under control.
``We were very worried at
first, but what has happened is not so grave,'' Carlos Valle, the Galapagos
coordinator for the World Wildlife Fund, told The Associated Press.
Treading carefully over
fuel-slicked rocks on Wednesday, park ranger Navil Segovia approached one
pelican, sluggish and stained black with diesel fuel.
He netted the bird, then
carefully embraced it around its chest, its wings folded in. The pelican was
then loaded onto a vehicle and taken to a control center, where it will be
cleaned before being released.
``It wasn't difficult to
catch because it was dazed,'' Segovia said.
About 200 volunteers, park
rangers and environmental experts searched for affected wildlife along the
shores of San Cristobal and Santa Fe Island, 37 miles to the west, home to
large colonies of sea lions and marine iguanas. Four sea lion cubs were cleaned
and released Wednesday, said park director Eliecer Cruz.
Some conservationists fear
the fuel will sink to the ocean floor, destroying algae vital to the food chain
and threatening marine iguanas, sharks, birds that feed off fish and other species.
Conservationists worldwide
demanded that Ecuador take greater steps to protect the Galapagos. And Rendon
said the country is doing so: He said new legislation is being written to
require special permission and insurance for all vessels entering the Galapagos
with more than 10 gallons of fuel aboard.
Shipping authorities have
confirmed that the Jessica was not insured for environmental contamination, he
said. International shipping rules require such insurance for vessels carrying
2,000 tons of fuel, while the Jessica had only 300 tons aboard, Galapagos park
officials said.
``We are writing up the
regulations to establish what fuels can enter the Galapagos, and moreover, that
the minimum amount possible is used,'' Rendon said.
The 28-year-old tanker
Jessica is owned by the Ecuadorean company Acotramar. It regularly transported
diesel and bunker, a heavy fuel used by tour boats, from the mainland into the
Galapagos, Ecuador's main tourist attraction.
It was carrying a cargo of
some 234,000 gallons of fuel when it hit bottom 550 yards off San Cristobal,
the easternmost island in the archipelago.
Thousands of gallons were
safely removed from the tanker after it hit, but much more spilled into the
water. Authorities had suspended oil recovery operations and were waiting out
rough tides when the last of the ship's cargo - an estimated 15,000 to 20,000
gallons of fuel - spilled out late Tuesday, apparently after pounding surf tore
new ruptures in the hull.