Oil leaking from a crippled tanker reached the shore of another island in the Galapagos chain off the coast of Ecuador yesterday, furthering the threat of ecological disaster in the nature preserve.
The director of the Galapagos National Park, Mr Eliecer Cruz, said the spill had seeped on to the island of Santa Cruz, in the centre of the archipelago. "The first waves of fuel oil have lapped on to the Santa Cruz shore in the Bay of Tortoises," Mr Cruz said. "We don't know the extent of the effects on the plants and animals."
The Ecuadoran oil tanker, Jessica, ran aground off San Cristobal, the most easterly of the islands, last week and began leaking 600 tonnes of fuel oil into the sea five days ago, forming a 1,200 sq km slick.
Santa Cruz, 56 km north-west of Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, the town on the main Galapagos island of San Cristobal, is the site of the Darwin Centre for the Preservation of Species, named after Charles Darwin.