PUERTO BAQUERIZO MORENO, Ecuador, Jan 24 (AFP) - Crews were working against time Wednesday to finish pumping the remaining oil from a battered tanker that ran aground off the Galapagos Islands before it seeps into the once pristine waters of the world famous nature reserve.
The islands came under renewed threat Tuesday when more oil was found flowing out of a second breach in the hull of the Ecuadoran tanker.
"We are facing a new pollution danger in the bay ... following the first oil spill," Environment Minister Rodolfo Rendon told reporters.
The oil began flowing on Friday, after the Jessica ran aground off San Cristobal, the most eastern of the islands, which lie some 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) from mainland Ecuador.
Befor the new breach was discovered, 600 tonnes of spilled oil covering more than 1,200 square kilometers (460 square miles) of ocean was drifting northwards, away from the islands.
The badly damaged tanker could still contain up to 160 tonnes of oil, authorities said.
Twenty-eight tonnes were pumped from the Jessica Monday by the Ecuadoran Navy and a team of US Coast Guard experts, but stormy seas hampered the work.
"It's hard to describe just how difficult this operation is," the Coast Guard team's commander, Ed Stanton, said in a statement.
"Waves were breaking over parts of the ship as the crews worked and by the time we stopped the ship's starboard list had increased from 40 to 60 degrees," he said.
Weather conditions were better Tuesday, and about 50 seals lolled on the San Cristobal beach where the pumping work was being coordinated.
The island was packed with reporters from all over the world covering the spill, and tourists, most of them European, continued to flock to the famous island chain for a glimpse of its exotic flora and fauna.
Rendon said oil reached the shores of tiny Plaza island, about 48 kilometers (30 miles) northwest of San Cristobal, on Tuesday. The 130-square-meter (1400-square-foot) volcanic outcrop is home to sea lions and land iguanas.
But Rendon said Santa Fe Island, slicked by oil Monday, had been cleaned Tuesday. The small island some 45 kilometers (30 miles) north of San Cristobal is famous as a sanctuary for the blue-footed booby seabird, rare lizards and sea lions.
Rendon thanked other nations for lending their support in a situation he had earlier Tuesday called "a very serious ecological problem, but not a disaster."
"I just got calls from my counterparts in Cuba and Colombia, offering help," he said. Germany, France and Britain have also pledged assistance.
President Gustavo Noboa on Monday declared a national emergency in the Galapagos Islands and a crisis committee has been set up in Quito to coordinate international aid.
The islands' governor, Fabian Parra, issued a call for international aid for equipment both to deal with the current crisis, and to have operational equipment on standby for a future emergency.
"If we had had access to such equipment we could have prevented the disaster becoming so extensive," Parra told AFP Tuesday.
Floating booms and chemicals are currently being used to contain the oil already spilled.
The volcanic islands that rose from the Pacific seabed 10 million years ago were first made famous when pioneering biologist Charles Darwin conducted research there in 1835 leading him to develop his theory of evolution.
Some 10,000 people, mostly fishermen, live on the archipelago. The islands' best-known residents are its 10,000 giant tortoises, almost all of which live on Isabela Island, west of San Cristobal.
Blower dolphins, tropical fish, penguins, red crabs, albatross, wingless cormorants and marine iguanas are among other species found on the islands, named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1978.
Ninety percent of its reptiles, 46 percent of its insects and half its bird species are found nowhere else.
jt/fgf/ AFP
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