Antarctic Oil Spill Staunched; Scientists Still Assessing Impact

U.S. and Argentine divers have staunched the flow of oil leaking from an Argentine supply vessel that ran aground in the Antarctic and have begun offloading barrels of oil and gasoline, a process that could take a month or longer, National Science Foundation officials said Friday.

An estimated 500 to 600 metric tons of diesel fuel escaped from the ship, but researchers said most of the oil that is not vacuumed up by skimmers flown in for the clean-up will evaporate in 10 days.

“Some environmental effects (of the spill) are immediate and severe, but the total effect is not known and may take a long time to become known,” according to Bernhard Lettau, NSF’s program manager for polar ocean studies, who talked to reporters by radiotelephone from the foundation’s Palmer Station, 1.1 miles from the sunken ship.

Virtually all of the baby skuas, sea gull-like predators, in the area have died as a result of the spill, Lettau said, and researchers are monitoring other wildlife to assess the long-term impact of the spill.

Limpets, sponges and kelp were all hard-hit by the oil spill, but bottom-dwelling communities were little affected because the diesel fuel stayed mainly on the surface, he said. The researchers have found dead cormorants and penguins, he said, and have observed an oil sheen on the coats of many living birds.

The spill began two weeks ago today when the Bahia Paraiso ran aground and began leaking its diesel fuel. Authorities had feared the vessel would break up, releasing its 250,000 gallons of fuel. Good weather during the past two weeks apparently forestalled such a catastrophe, reducing the problem to a manageable size.

“This is not a large spill,” said NSF’s Thomas Forhan, who has been in charge of the cleanup. “The real implication here is that this is an area that was untouched before.”

The ship is now lying on its side on a gravel slope in 40 feet of water. Divers found that the side under water has many holes and cracks, so that the vessel cannot be salvaged. It will probably be towed away intact or in pieces, Forhan said.