By
The Associated Press
PUERTO BAQUERIZO, Galapagos Islands - A U.S. team set up equipment Sunday to transfer diesel fuel from damaged tanks aboard a ship that has dumped 150,000 gallons of oil into this fragile marine environment.
Ecuador's environment minister, Rodolfo Rendon, said the spill had already caused ''extremely grave'' damage.
The Ecuadorian tanker, which began leaking fuel Friday, was lying tilted sharply toward its right side about 550 yards from San Cristobal Island.
San Cristobal is one of the Galapagos Islands, which are famous for their giant tortoises and rare species of birds and plants. Charles Darwin developed his theory of evolution by studying wildlife on these islands in the Pacific Ocean, 600 miles off Ecuador's coast.
The team of U.S. experts, including 10 members of the U.S. Coast Guard's pollution response National Strike Force, arrived late Sunday with specialized oil spill equipment such as inflatable containment barges and high-capacity pumps.
U.S. Coast Guard Capt. Edwin Stanton told The Associated Press that his team would attempt to transfer remaining fuel spilling through the ruptured hull to empty storage tanks that are still intact within the ship.
But he said pounding surf and shifting pressure within the vessel could cause the tanker to break apart.
As of Sunday, 150,000 gallons of fuel had leaked, Rendon said, and slicks had affected a 117-square-mile area.
Rendon said surf pounding the tanker Jessica, which ran aground last Tuesday in a bay off San Cristobal, has opened up new fissures in its hull, speeding up the rate of the leak. The ship carried 243,000 gallons of diesel.
He said the spill was heading south and could reach Santa Fe, a small island 37 miles west of San Cristobal famed for the Santa Fe land iguana, a species that is found nowhere else in the world.
Experts said curtailing the flow of escaped fuel is almost impossible now.
''The bottom line is once oil gets out of a ship it's virtually impossible to remove it or contain it on the ocean,'' said Stanton.
Galapagos National Park biologist Mauricio Velasquez said the long-term danger is that the fuel will sink to the ocean floor, destroying algae that is vital to the food chain, threatening marine iguanas, sharks, birds and other species.
Velasquez said the current was also pushing the spill south, and that within days it could reach Espanola Island, where large colonies of sea lions and other marine animals congregate.
Floating nets and barriers have been set up to control the spill, but officials said slicks had reached nearby beaches and harmed at least 11 sea lions, which were expected to live. Some 20 birds, including blue-footed boobies, pelicans and albatrosses, also were affected.
Also Sunday, Ecuadorian President Gustavo Noboa demanded a ''detailed report'' on the cause of the accident, which officials have attributed to navigational error.
Police on San Cristobal said no charges had been filed against the ship's captain, Tarquino Arevalo, who remained on the island Sunday, or against his company, Acotramar.
Aldo Villota, a Peruvian surfer, ignored the penetrating odor on the beaches just north of this port of some 4,000 people.
After he emerged, he said, his swimming trunks, body, hair and surf board ''were stained with something oily and dark.''
