PUERTO BAQUERIZO MORENO, Ecuador, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Efforts to clear the Ecuadorean tanker aground off the Galapagos Islands were hampered by a lack of equipment on Friday but the threat from the oil spill was fading, experts said.
The Ecuadorean Navy had hoped to bring the Jessica to an even keel but a U.S. Coast Guard team said they had run out of cables key to the salvage operation.
The Jessica belched about two-thirds of its cargo of 240,000 gallons (908,496 litres) of oil into the crystalline Galapagos waters after running aground last week. Its semi-submerged hulk now lays in the prophetically named Shipwreck Bay, outside the tiny harbor of San Cristobal island.
"It's so frustrating. First the weather interrupted operations and now we've been hit by a lack of equipment," Coast Guard team chief Ed Stanton told Reuters.
"Today's a write-off -- and it's going to take a week minimum to get the boat righted," he said of the ecological disaster in the pristine ecosystem, which the ship's captain has admitted was due to his own error.
Tarquino Arevalo, 58, told Reuters he misjudged his entry into the tiny Pacific harbor of the ramshackle archipelago capital. The ship captain was being treated for a gash in his head and dehydration after staying aboard for four days after the accident. He faces up to five years in prison if convicted of damaging the environment -- a crime in the Galapagos, made famous by 19th century British naturalist Charles Darwin.
The island cluster is home to myriad exotic species including iguanas, flightless cormorants, sea lions and the famous Galapagos giant tortoises, a mix that inspired Darwin to devise his theory of evolution.
LAND THAT TIME FORGOT
The weird and wonderful species have been able to evolve in their natural habitat for thousands of years in isolation. Lying some 600 miles (950 km) off the Ecuadorean mainland, man only inhabited the Galapagos in the 16th century.
But ecologists said the damage has been minimal because ocean currents have taken most of the diesel and bunker fuel, which was to be used to power tour boats, away from the islands. While some animals would die, they anticipated the ecosystem would make a swift recovery.
"We are talking about minimal animal deaths, and we expect to be able to mitigate a full recovery (to the ecosystem) within 3-4 years," said Galapagos National Park Director Eliecer Cruz.
"We have been very lucky. We think the disaster has passed," Environment Minister Rodolfo Rendon told Reuters. "The problem is still very serious, but paradise here will never be lost."
The only known damage to wildlife has been a pair of dead pelicans and some animals and birds tainted with oil.
About 30 sea lions and several pelicans, giant tortoises and colorful blue-footed boobie birds were moved to centers to be cleaned up by teams of conservationists, who flew in from around the world.
However local fishermen, who have helped scoop the oil by hand with buckets, fear their livelihoods and tourism on the island are in peril nonetheless, and accuse the government of being slow to tackle the spill.
Seen from above, the Pacific was streaked with oily rainbows but the stain had largely broken up, with patches of pale blue from chemical agents sprayed from converted fishing boats.
A thin slick of diesel had spread as far as Santa Cruz and Santa Fe islands, but the pollution to their shores had been negligible.