A fuel spill less than a kilometre from the remote Galapagos Islands is 鈥渁 disaster鈥� posing a serious threat to unique wildlife, says Ecuador鈥檚 environment ministry.
An estimated 144,000 gallons of diesel and heavier 鈥榖unker鈥� fuel destined for the islands started leaking into the sea last Friday. A team from the US Coastguard pollution unit is now helping Ecuadorian authorities with the clean-up.
鈥淏ut 80,000 gallons are thought to have been dispersed 鈥� they鈥檙e unrecoverable,鈥� says Diana Langley of the London-based Galapagos Conservation Trust. 鈥淎nd the weather forecasts suggest the slick will move right into the heart of the archipelago. It鈥檚 absolutely catastrophic.鈥�
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A colony of sealions are in the direct path of the spreading spill, says Rodolfo Rendon, Ecuador鈥檚 environment minister.
The Galapagos Islands lie around 1000 kilometres off the coast of Ecuador. The Jessica ran aground in Wreck Bay, near the main port of San Cristobal, last Tuesday. On Friday, a pipe in the machine room burst, and the cargo of 160,000 gallons of diesel and 80,000 gallons of bunker fuel began to leak out.
Rare animals, including a giant tortoise and marine iguana, which are found nowhere else on Earth, are threatened by the spill, say environmentalists.
Sticky sludge
The bunker fuel is used by the islands鈥� tourist boats. This 鈥渟ludgy鈥� fuel poses the biggest threat, Langley told New 杏吧原创.
鈥淒iesel can damage an animal鈥檚 skin, and if ingested is much more toxic. But it鈥檚 really the lesser of two evils. The bunker fuel will stick to an animal, preventing it flying or moving and kill it that way,鈥� she says.
The fuel spill is relatively small. More than 11 million gallons leaked into the Alaskan seas from the Exxon Valdez in 1989. But the islands that helped Darwin develop his theory of evolution by natural selection are important because they are home to so many unique species, say environmentalists. Many scientists regard the archipelago as an irreplaceable natural laboratory, in which they can study the effects of extreme isolation on evolution.
The islands lie close to the main shipping route between the western coast of Central and South America. The World Wide Fund for Nature has renewed its calls for greater regulation of shipping in the waters around the islands.
