Go back / New diesel spill off the Galapaagos Islands (June 4, 2002)
|
New
diesel spill off the Galapagos Islands
(June 4 2002)
|
||||||||||||||||||
 |
Today (4/JULY/2002) at 7:30 in the mornings when the maneuvers to disembark fuel from the BAE TAURUS in Puerto Villamil where being held one of the tanks carrying 2,000 gallons of diesel sunk, and the fuel spilled on the site. | |||||||||||||||||
| View from aircraft / image taken from www.darwinfoundation.org | ||||||||||||||||||
| Navy
Capt. Angel Valencia, head of operations in the islands, said the
oil slick released Thursday morning did not reach nearby beaches,
saying he expected ecological damage to be "minimal."
The first actions to avoid the dispersion of the fuel where taken by staff of the TAURUS and by staff from the Navy corvette “Loja” that is also anchored at the moment in Puerto Villamil. A barrier was extended to hold the diesel and dispersant was applied. Navy Capt. Angel Valencia said the spill occurred after heavy surf forced port workers to dump a fuel container into the ocean as they were unloading an oil tanker on Isabel Island, the largest in the Galapagos chain. The first actions to avoid the dispersion of the fuel where taken by staff of the TAURUS and by staff from the Navy corvette “Loja” that is also anchored at the moment in Puerto Villamil. A barrier was extended to hold the diesel and dispersant was applied. Valencia said workers contained 98 percent of the spilled fuel by Thursday afternoon and that the remaining 2 percent either evaporated or was diluted by dispersing chemicals. At 10:00am the staff of the Galapagos National Park Service and the Charles Darwin Foundation installed a new barrier with absorbing material to contain the fuel. |
||||||||||||||||||
| The
volunteers and staff members from the Navy, Galapagos National Park
Service and Charles Darwin Foundation are working hard to prevent
the spill to reach the beach of Puerto Villamil. |
 |
|||||||||||||||||
|
The staff of
the Galapagos National Park Service and Navy is trying to find alternatives
to take the sunken fuel tank out of the water, although it seems
that all the fuel is out already according to the latest information
from Villamil. |
||||||||||||||||||
| UPDATE | ||||||||||||||||||
| Mr.
Galo Rosero Chief of the Electric Company of Isabela confirmed this
fuel was ordered for the electric plant of Puerto Villamil, but sadly
this accident occurred.
The first actions taken to avoid the dispersal of the fuel where done immediately and were successful. Researchers of the Charles Darwin Foundation are monitoring the spill with the staff of the Galapagos National Park Service. The beaches of Villamil have been searched, and no marine or terrestrial specie has been affected. The spill was successfully controlled and the fuel did not reach the coast of Puerto Villamil. |
||||||||||||||||||
|
Source: www.foxnews.com www.elcomercio.com www.darwinfoundation.com www.galapagospark.org |
||||||||||||||||||
| Related
Topics:
Jessica´s Oil spill in the Galapagos Islands GO2 |
||||||||||||||||||
| Links:
Fox News has some of the original text published in this webpage. http://www.foxnews.com You will find two news notes in the Charles Darwin Foundation website, some of that text has been used in this webpage http://www.darwinfoundation.org/news/news07040201.html A news article was published by one of the main newspapers of Ecuador www.elcomercio.com |
||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
For
detailed info write us to: info@go2galapagos.com
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
Feedback
to: webmaster@go2galapagos.com
|
||||||||||||||||||