Marine Protected Areas Corner

CEP Homepage

Case Study of a Spill Response: How Galapagos Managers Handled the Jessica Spill

First response:
On the morning after the accident, the response was co-ordinated by the Ecuadorian Navy and the director of the Galapagos National Park Service (GNPS). Floating barriers were dispensed around the ship to prevent dispersion of the oil. Waters were calm, and the Navy began efforts to empty the fuel tanks ship-to-ship. Since the Jessica listed 25 degrees the next day and also suffered mechanical failure, bunker fuel started spilling. The response plan by the GNPS and the Navy was to contain and deflect the spreading fuel from sensitive areas as best as possible, and engage in extensive monitoring efforts of affected areas by plane, boat, and foot.

Coordination:
Detailed updates on the day-to-day efforts of the spill's cleanup and monitoring crews were and are provided on the web site of the Charles Darwin Foundation (www.darwinfoundation.org). These efforts included monitoring areas affected by the spill, monitoring potentially threatened areas to establish an ecological baseline, setting up animal rescue centers, and treating affected animals onsite.

All this required extensive coordination on the part of the spill management team. With the Navy in charge of spill containment, GNPS directed the cleanup. In all, 60 park rangers were involved. After the coordinators for each activity were established, the response flowed with no problems.

The team's work was enhanced by favorable weather. Currents and winds eventually pushed the fuel west and north, away from San Cristobal and into deeper waters. Although some of the slick reached the islands of Santa Fe and Santa Cruz, only small numbers of seabirds and sea lions appear to have been affected. Intense sunshine sped up evaporation of the diesel fuel.

Robert Bensted-Smith, director of Charles Darwin Research Station, stated that preliminary assessments indicated the impacts of the oil spill on the Galapagos ecosystem would not be severe. "If we are right...then this will be a great relief to everyone," he wrote in a published report. "However, relief should not lead us to neglect the need for a great deal of mitigation, ecological monitoring, disaster prevention, and contingency planning, for which Ecuador will need international assistance."

Role of computers in the response
Computer technology played a significant and varied role in the management team's response to the spill. To anticipate the projected movement of the oil slick, the management team used a geographic information system (GIS) to analyze drift-buoy data from the last 20 years. Complementing this, regular aerial surveys collected data on the position of the slick, which were entered into the GIS database. Managers used these data to determine the best areas to set up wildlife rescue stations.

Web sites played a key part in keeping stakeholders around the world informed of the spill and response. The site www.galapagos.org offered daily spill update information, but also provided a way for web visitors to assist the response. A page on the site enabled visitors to donate money directly to the spill response efforts using a credit card.."

For more information:
Desiree Cruz, Galapagos National Park Service, Isla Santa Cruz, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador. E-mail: infopng@fcdarwin.org.ec.

Paola Diaz, Charles Darwin Research Station, Isla Santa Cruz, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador. Tel: +593 5 527 013; E-mail: infocdrs@fcdarwin.org.ec; Web: www.darwinfoundation.org.

Erica Buck, Charles Darwin Foundation, Inc., 100 North Washington Street, Suite 232, Falls Church, VA 22046, USA. Tel: +1 703 538 6833; E-mail: info@galapagos.org; Web: www.galapagos.org.

Dagmar Schmidt Etkin, an oil spill analyst for Environmental Research Consulting (US), has been studying impacts of oil spills for 12 years. Etkin offered tips on how to plan effectively for responding to oil spills near MPAs focusing on:.

Prevention:
No matter how successful the cleanup, it doesn't remove all the oil from a spill area. Prevent the incidents and focus on the ones that cause the largest types of spills: groundings and collisions These can be prevented through the availability and use of accurate navigational tools and charts, proper training of crews and captains, and the use of pilots in difficult passages."

Planning:
Map out the vulnerable natural areas that would be most impacted by a spill and start planning your response strategy. There are a number of technologies to be used in a response depending on the area needing protection, including booms to deflect oil and chemical dispersants (unsuitable for mangroves and coral reefs...) to break oil down. The oil can be burned. In some cases, however, doing nothing is the most appropriate response. A high-energy beach may be restored to its pre-spill state more quickly by wave action than by human efforts.

Also important is to establish a clear chain of command for managing the response."

Response:
Expect for things to go wrong during a response and be prepared to improvise to some extent. Even though on a tight budget, as in the Caribbean, there have been some creative and effective measures employed to control spills. Bales of hay, used as booms, have worked well to deflect spills from sensitive areas.

For more information:
Dagmar Schmidt Etkin, Environmental Research Consulting, 750 Main Street, Winchester, MA 01890, USA. Tel: +1 781 721 6795; E-mail: etkin@environmental-research.com; Web: www.environmental-research.com.

Adapted from MPA NEWS Vol. 2, No. 7 February 2001 http://depts.washington.edu/mpanews/MPA16.htm

Last updated: 23 March, 2001

Tel: 876 922 - 9267
Fax: 876 922 - 9292
Email: uneprcuja@cwjamaica.com
URL: http://www.cep.unep.org/