The ship was carrying 243,000 gallons of diesel fuel, a refined oil product. Read the news story about the discovery of the spill and initial efforts to clean it up. That is exactly what happens when a tanker spills its oil into the ocean. The oil stays on the surface-a huge, dark, gooey mess that spreads over the top of the water for miles and miles. Then they cannot swim or fly.
Many animals die in oil spills.
Read about the danger to the animals from the Galapagos Islands fuel spill. Usually, people work together in using cleanup equipment to recover the oil. Some of their equipment works like vacuum cleaners to draw the oil from the surface of the water into another container. No matter how much they get, however, it is impossible to get all the oil back. The rest continues to spread, polluting the environment and harming wildlife.