Fuel Spill From Boat Poses a Threat to Galapagos Islands

A boat carrying fuel to Ecuador’s Galapagos Islands that ran aground four days ago is leaking oil into the ecologically sensitive waters nearby, the government said Saturday.

The spill has already affected wildlife 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 spill began late Friday when a pipe in the boat’s machine room burst, fouling the waters near the islands.

He said a second and potentially more harmful leak began Saturday, when about 1,000 gallons of heavy fuel began to spill from the craft.

“That is the dangerous part. The worst thing that would happen is that the boat would burst entirely and it would all spill,” he said. “If we manage to unload the majority today, the situation will be under control.”

The Galapagos Islands, 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 heavy fuel to an Ecuadorean naval operation and a private tour boat operator, according to a government spokeswoman. It ran aground half a mile from the Galapagos’ port on San Cristobal Island Tuesday.

Ecuadorean merchant marines are unloading the Jessica’s fuel tanks and have controlled the leak by setting up a fence to trap the fuel and applying chemicals to neutralize it.