Yesterday, Saturday January 27, the Galapagos National Park patrol launch Guadalupe River, left for Isabela, transporting equipment and combustible for the mitigation and control of a fuel slick resulting from last week's spill. The slick, which was found off Tortuga Islet yesterday at noon, collided with Tintoreras Islet and reached Puerto Villamil Beach on Isabela Island. Both the Islet and the beach have been cleaned and the situation is under control. Monitoring activity will continue because filaments of combustible were found at Quinta Beach, a few kilometers from Puerto Villamil.
On Floreana Island, the spilt fuel reached a small bay between Perros Beach and the area known as "Las Cuevas". It's estimated that by 4 p.m. on Saturday the bunker fuel covered a surface area of 15m=B2. In the following hours six 55-gallon tanks were filled with bunker fuel (without water). These tanks or drums were taken to Puerto Ayora (Santa Cruz Island) and emptied into the asphalt pools of the Army's Engineer's Corps. The Galapagos National Park's patrol launch Sirenian is in Floreana continuing the clean up of the fuel. So far fauna and flora hasn't been affected except for one heavily oiled Audubon shearwater (a small marine bird) that was found. Thanks to reports from tour boats, we can confirm that no slicks have reached the islets east of Floreana (Watson, Caldwell, Roca Elefante and Gardner). These islets shelter important colonies of Galapagos fur seals and marine birds.
Today, Sunday 28th, the Guadalupe River will monitor the zone of Cuatro Hermanos, Ballena Hill and Ballena Islet (Isabela Island). One of the commercial flights reported a slick in this area.
Galapagos National Park personnel have relocated to Puerto Villamil, where they are installing an operations base so that they can react quickly and effectively if the slick reaches southeastern Isabela. The operations base will contain a rescue wildlife center where oiled animal can recover.
The situation remains serious, but control and mitigation operations are underway.
Director
Galapagos National Park