FEATURE - Year after slick, man still threatens Galapagos
Date: 17-Jan-02
Country: ECUADOR
Author: Daniel Flynn
Yet the sunken Jessica's punctured hull also provides a picture of nature's resilience.
A year after the Ecuadorean vessel foundered on Jan. 16, 2001, on rocks near the eastern island of San Cristobal, spewing some 160,000 gallons (600,000 liters) of diesel and bunker fuel into the pristine Pacific waters, the sea is slowly turning the tanker into an artificial reef - and a future attraction for divers.
"In three years we should have some good biodiversity there, which could be nice to visit," said Fernando Espinoza, head of the Charles Darwin Foundation for conservation of the islands. "The animals had a lucky escape. Given the size of the spill, the damage could have been much worse."
Benign currents carried the Jessica slick out to sea, where the fuel either sank or evaporated. While a few beaches and dozens of animals were tarred by oil, miraculously, the only fatal victims were four pelicans and two blue-footed boobies.
But the spill alerted the international community to the need to help cash-strapped Ecuador protect its "Enchanted Isles," whose unique marine iguanas and lumbering giant tortoises inspired Charles Darwin's evolutionary theories.
In mid-December, local ecologists celebrated the decision by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to designate 51,350 square miles (133,000 square km) of marine reserve around the islands a world heritage site.
The archipelago was among the first 12 areas to receive UNESCO protection in 1978, and ecologists fought for seven years for similar status for its teeming seas, which are fed by the confluence of five ocean currents. But the move encountered stiff resistance from residents who feared it would hamper lucrative fishing and other businesses.
"The challenge now facing Ecuador is to ensure development for residents of the Galapagos," Environment Minister Lourdes Luque told Reuters. "If we cannot improve their standard of living, we are going to face continuing conflicts."
TOURISM - BLESSING OR CURSE?
Despite the Jessica accident, tourists still flock to the Galapagos, tempted by a once-in-a-lifetime chance to return the antediluvian stare of a giant tortoise or turn cartwheels with playful sea lions in an underwater ballet.
Visitors are limited to 60,000 a year and they spend $120 million in the islands. The streets of Puerto Ayora, on Santa Cruz island, are littered with Internet cafes, restaurants and shops selling T-Shirts boasting "I Love Boobies" - the graceful diving birds that populate the islands.
On the beach at the outlying isle of Espanola, boatloads of tourists pick their way among the sea lion pups cuddling flipper-to-flipper, while huge bull sea lions bark angry orders to keep away from their harems.
"Tourism has not damaged the islands in any way," insisted guide Victor Mendieza, who forbids his group from straying from the marked paths or touching sea lion pups, as the smell of humans may cause a mother to abandon her child.
But for ecologist Espinoza, the harm from tourism is evident: "When there is overcrowding at the visiting sites, then the species suffer the consequences."
And nature can bite back. In Espanola's Gardner Bay, a hungry ocean shark, come to prey on young sea lion pups, chased a group of snorkelers onto the rocks.
On the far side of the island, Me???grapher who startled a fluffy waved albatross chick as it gingerly stretched its wings and prepared to leave its nest. The complex mating rituals of these unique birds bond them for up to 40 years, despite spending a year at a time at sea.
"Perhaps we could all learn something there," laughed Mendieza, who is forced to live thousands of miles from his family in the Ecuadorean capital of Quito due to the island's tough immigration laws.
TORTOISE SOUP ANYONE?
Humans are new arrivals on these volcanic islands, only discovered in the 16th century by Fray Tomas de Berlanga, bishop of Panama. But these days, a t