QUIT0 (Reuters) - Ecuador declared a national emergency in the Galapagos Islands on Monday after an oil spill just a half-mile from the shore floated toward the westernmost islands, threatening some of the world's rarest sea animals and birds, officials said.
''For us, this is the equivalent of an earthquake,'' said presidential spokesman Alfredo Negrete, explaining that the state of emergency would let the government immediately channel the funds needed for cleanup.
The Galapagos Islands, 600 miles west of Ecuador's coast in the Pacific Ocean, are home to hundreds of native species -- including giant tortoises and iguanas -- that evolved over thousands of years.
The spill started on Friday, when a pipe burst in the machine room of the Ecuadorean-registered boat Jessica, which had ran aground three days before on an embankment near Galapagos' capital and principal port, Puerto Baquerizo Moreno on San Cristobal Island.
It grew worse over the weekend, when tanks carrying 240,000 gallons of diesel and bunker fuel -- a heavy fuel used to power some tour boats operating in the islands -- leaked 144,000 gallons of oil into ocean waters shared by tropical fish, pelicans and sea lions.
''It's a superficial film. We're not talking about something very thick,'' Adm. Gonzalo Vega, director of Ecuador's Merchant Marine, told Reuters, adding that ''it's moving toward the west, toward the other islands,'' about 30 and 40 miles away.
The Jessica, 211 feet long and weighing 835 tons, was on its way to service a private tour boat operator and Petrocomercial, an arm of the state oil company that provides the islands with fuel.
While the accident is far smaller than the Exxon Valdez supertanker's 1989 spill of 11 million gallons of oil in Alaskan seas, the unique ecological makeup of the Galapagos and the spill's closeness to its shores have sparked outcries from environmental organizations worldwide.
The stain over the clear blue Pacific waters had an overall area of 390 square miles late on Sunday. It is now moving westward toward Santa Cruz Island but growing thinner as it travels, posing less of a threat, Vega said. He added that he hoped the oil would be dispersed in 48 to 72 hours.
Animals In Danger
According to the Galapagos National Park, 30 pelicans, four sea lions and seven boobies have been affected by the spill. One Franklin sea gull died.
The Charles Darwin Research Station on San Cristobal Island and the Galapagos National Park have set up rescue sites to help clean feathers and fur and have placed barriers to stop sea creatures from coming into contact with the oil.
The long-lasting impact of the spill remained unclear, though local environmental watchdog the Nature Foundation said it would have ''irreparable'' consequences.
''Obviously, the longer they wait to remove this layer (of oil), the plants beneath the ocean's surface will weaken or die, and the entire food chain will be altered,'' Ricardo Moreno, director of foundation, told Reuters.
As the oily film spreads, it blocks sunlight from the plant life on the ocean floor, Moreno said, altering the relationship among the species developed over centuries.
The World Wide Fund for Nature, a global conservation body, called for limits to shipping off the Galapagos, which British naturalist Charles Darwin visited in 1835 while developing his theories of national selection.
In 1999, about 66,000 tourists visited the islands, about 81 percent of them foreign.
Cleanup Under Way A 10-member U.S. Coast Guard (news - web sites) mission arrived late on Sunday to work with Ecuadorean authorities to drain the remaining 30,000 gallons of fuel from the boat, which is tipping into the water. Once the fuel is removed and the threat of more spillage averted, the team will work to contain the oil already in the waters and then to rescue the Jessica, Vega said.
Ecuadorean authorities have applied 3,000 gallons of chemical dispersants and 1,000 gallons of absorbents and put up a fence to try to keep the toxic substances from reaching nearby Santa Fe Island.
The mission will cost the economically battered Ecuadorean government about $500,000. Guayaquil-based shipping company Acotramar, which owns the Jessica, will be held responsible for the costs, Cerbino said, though the boat lacks spill insurance.
According to Ecuador's Merchant Marine, boats carrying less than 2,000 tons of hydrocarbons are not required by law to have an insurance policy to cover spills.
Several environmental leaders have said that the vessel became stuck because its captain erred when entering the bay. Fernando Espinoza, secretary-general of the Darwin Station, told TC television he thought Ecuador's government had acted promptly but bureaucracy had delayed the aid the islands desperately needed.
''In order to comply with all the requirements of the U.S. Embassy, a letter signed by one minister, then another minister, everything got delayed,'' he said.
But Hernan Vilema, San Cristobal's mayor, was more critical, accusing Ecuador's Environment Ministry of acting too slowly and the state oil company of caring more about its losses than the contamination.
''For me, they're the guilty ones, the government, the Environment Ministry and Petrocomercial,'' he told reporters.
