About 600 tonnes of fuel oil were spreading near the Galapagos Islands yesterday, twice the amount announced on Sunday, the spokesman for Ecuador's National Park said.
President Gustavo Noboa of Ecuador last night declared a state of emergency in the islands due to the oil spill threatening the world famous nature reserve.
The island chain's sensitive environment is seriously threatened by a spill from the Jessica, a tanker which ran aground last Tuesday near San Cristobal, the easternmost island in the chain.
Ecuador's Environment Minister, Mr Rodolfo Rendon, has appealed for international aid to help contain the spill, which he said has extended over 1,200 sq km. Workers hoping to contain the spill were yesterday aided by weather which was calmer than expected, but still feared the oil could devastate the region's ecosystem.
"We were spared by the good weather and calm waters," said Mr Diego Bonilla, a park official. But he and other officials emphasised that until the slick was cleaned up, the wildlife refuge was still at risk.
The tanker ran aground while travelling from the south-eastern Ecuadoran port city of Guayaquil. Officials have said that at least 91,000 litres of fuel have been recovered from the bay where the spill occurred.
Police on San Cristobal said no charges had been filed against the ship's captain, Mr Tarquino Arevalo, who remained on the island, or against his company, Acotramar.
But Mr Rendon said a request for a criminal investigation would be made to Ecuador's attorney general's office.
Floating nets and barriers were erected to control the spill, but officials said slicks had reached nearby beaches, harming at least 11 sea lions, which were expected to live. About 20 birds, including blue-footed boobies, pelicans and albatrosses, also were affected.
A Galapagos National Park biologist, Mr Mauricio Velasquez, worked yesterday to measure the fuel's absorption rate. He said the long-term danger was that it would sink to the ocean floor, destroying algae, a vital key in the food chain, threatening marine iguanas, blue-footed boobies, masked boobies and seagulls, as well as sharks and lobsters.
Mr Velasquez said the current was pushing the spill south, and that within days it could reach Spain Island, where large colonies of sea lions, and other marine animals, congregate.
The team of pollution experts from the US Coast Guard arrived in San Cristobal late on Sunday, along with a co-ordinator from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, who would help determine where the oil would go once it leaked into the water.
"We sent 10 members of our national strike force, an oil spill expert and a C-130 Coast Guard aircraft full of pumping equipment and inflatable barges," a US Coast Guard spokesman, Mr Dan Dewell, said.
"We will give the government of Ecuador any advice and assistance," he said, adding "the main thing is to get our experts and equipment down there."
Earlier yesterday President Noboa called a cabinet meeting to assess the situation, his office said.
The Galapagos Islands were first made famous when Charles Darwin conducted research there in 1835, leading to his theory of evolution.
Mr Dewell said the inflatable barges would be used to siphon off any remaining oil from the leaking tanker, then haul it away.
Mr Bonilla, assistant director of Galapagos National Park, said by telephone that "the spill is limited to several oil slicks, but they have not touched the shoreline, and no wild animal has suffered".
In a statement released late on Friday, the director of the Galapagos National Park, Mr Eliecer Cruz, said the oil spill had been caused by the ship listing and "a technical error by the crew".
The Galapagos, a chain of islands, about 1,000 km off the coast of Ecuador, is home to 9,000 rare giant tortoises, for which the islands were named.