Favourable winds and tides are moving the oil slick in the Galapagos islands away from the archipelago, though two islands have already been affected.
The Ecuadorean environment minister Rodolfo Rendon said the slick was drifting to the northwest, away from the main islands.
The good fortune accompanies the successful draining of remaining fuel from the grounded oil tanker by a US Coast Guard team. However, as much as 170,000 gallons of diesel and heavy 鈥榖unker鈥� fuel have already poured into the sea.
Advertisement
This fuel is virtually unrecoverable and threatens the islands unique wildlife. On Monday, Ecuador declared a national state of emergency. The news of the drifting oil slick comes as more details of the chain of events are beginning to emerge.
The Jessica grounded less than a kilometre from San Cristobal island on 16 January. It had been thought that the first fuel spill occurred on 19 January, when a pipe may have burst in the tanker鈥檚 machine room.
But scientists at the Charles Darwin Research Foundation (CDRF) in the Galapagos Islands say the Ecuadorean Navy and Petrocomercial, part of the state-owned oil company Petroecuador, launched an attempt to recover the fuel on 18 January.
The scientists claim that a 鈥渕istake鈥� by the crew caused the bunker fuel to begin to leak. This was followed by the more serious spill on Friday.
Both the CDRF and the mayor of San Cristobal, Hernan Vilema, have accused Petroecuador of caring more about salvaging fuel than protecting wildlife. A statement from the CDRF claims the company was 鈥渕ore interested in rescuing the fuel without contaminating it with sea water, instead of saving the unique flora and fauna of the archipelago鈥�.
However, Oswaldo Ramfres-Land谩zuri, Ecuador鈥檚 ambassador to Britain, denies the allegations. 鈥淭he Ecuadorian government and all its agencies, from the beginning of the current situation in the Galapagos Islands, have made their best efforts to prevent further extension of the oil slick and to preserve the unique flora and fauna of the archipelago,鈥� he told 快猫短视频 in a statement.
The sludgy bunker fuel is used by the islands鈥� tourist boats and poses the biggest threat, says Diana Langley of the Galapagos Conservation Trust.
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 sea off Alaska 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 evolution in isolation.
Wildlife experts say the long term impact of the spill is hard to predict. Oil-soaked pelicans, sea lions and boobies are being treated, and on Tuesday, the spill hit areas inhabited by rare land iguanas.
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.
鈥淚t is crucial for the Ecuadorian government and the international shipping community to consider designating the waters around these islands as a particularly sensitive sea area, 鈥� says Sian Pullen, WWF鈥檚 international shipping expert. 鈥淪uch measures would help to ensure a much higher level of protection for this unique area of the world.鈥�