Containment and clean up teams are racing to save this biological jewel . Mistaking a signal buoy for a lighthouse, the captain grounded the vessel during a routine delivery of fuel to the island. However, late on January 23rd, pounding surf damaged the tanker's hull, releasing the remaining oil into the water. The spill's western migration has reached the islands of Santa Fe and Santa Cruz and threatens endemic marine iguanas, masked and blue-footed boobies, and frigatebirds. So far, boobies, sea lions, and pelicans have been affected by the spill.
Birds are at the hightest risk from the oil.
They die by ingesting toxins, but also by hypothermia-the viscous coating disrupts their waterproof layer of feathers. The Charles Darwin Research Station, the National Park Service, and local volunteers have set up makeshift rehabilitation centers for wildlife. The Ecuadorian Navy and the U.S. Coast Guard are cooperating on the clean-up activities. They are estimated to still have 96 percent of their endemic species intact. The California Academy of Sciences, at the request of the Ecuadorian Consul General, has created a special emergency fund to help Ecuador deal not only with the Jessica clean-up and subsequent ecological monitoring, but with contigency planning to avert future environmental disasters.