No Threat to Galapagos National Park after Freighter Accident

A freighter, which ran aground off the island of San Cristobal, is carrying 16,000 gallons (more than 60,000 liters) of fuel oil ran aground in the Galapagos Islands.

For right now it does not pose a threat to the Pacific archipelago's unique environment, the Galapagos National Park said.

But an inspection "confirmed that the part of the vessel that is on the rocks is distant from the fuel tanks," the park said.

Authorities, however, were drawing up contingency plans in case of a spill. The ship's cargo also is being offloaded to make it lighter in hopes that a high tide will lift it off the rocks.

The Galápagos Islands are an archipelago of volcanic islands distributed on either side of the Equator in the Pacific Ocean, 926 km (575 mi) west of continental Ecuador, of which they are a part.

The Galápagos Islands and their surrounding waters form an Ecuadorian province, a national park, and a biological marine reserve. The principal language on the islands is Spanish. The islands have a population of slightly over 25,000.

The islands are famed for their vast number of endemic species and were studied by Charles Darwin during the voyage of the Beagle. His observations and collections contributed to the inception of Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection

Source: eturbonews.com