San Cristobal News

Ecuador's environment minister, Raul Ledesma, said on Monday that a situation involving a sunken barge in the Galapagos Islands which was carrying 600 gallons of diesel is under control but added that authorities are "very concerned" about the vessel's recovery.The barge sank on Sunday after a crane at the La Predial dock of San Cristobal - the easternmost island of the Galapagos archipelago - fell while unloading cargo, Ecuador's navy said in a statement on Twitter.Located around 1…

1942 - USS Wasp (CV 7) is torpedoed by a Japanese submarine while operating in the Southwestern Pacific in support of forces on Guadalcanal. USS O'Brien (DD 415) and USS North Carolina (BB 55) are also struck by torpedoes from the same submarine. 1943 - USS Saufley (DD 465) and a Catalina Patrol Bomber piloted by Lt. W. J. Geritz from Patrol Squadron Twenty Three (VP 23) sinks the Japanese submarine RO-101 100 miles southeast of San Cristobal, Solomons. 1944 - USS Pampanito (SS 383) and USS Sealion (SS 315) rescue 73 British and 54 Australian POWs who survive the loss of Japanese freighter…

1864 - CSS Tallahassee, commanded by Cmdr. John Taylor Wood, returns to Wilmington, N.C. to refuel on coal. During her more than two week raid, CSS Tallahassee destroys 26 vessels and captures seven others. 1927 - USS Los Angeles (ZR 3) rises to a near-vertical position due to the sudden arrival of a cold air front that lifts the airships tail, causing it to rise before she can swing around the mast parallel to the new wind direction. Los Angeles only suffers minor damage but the affair demonstrates the risks involved with high mooring masts. 1943 - Depth charges from USS Patterson (DD 392) sink the Japanese submarine RO-35, 170 miles southeast of San Cristobal Island, Solomon Islands.

Grounded cargo ship Floreana was refloated by T&T Salvage on April 4, 2015 in San Cristobal, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador. Leading operations in the Galapagos Islands World Heritage Site, T&T Salvage ensured all fuel, oil and other pollutants were successfully removed prior to refloating the ship wreck that lie sunk on a rocky volcanic shoreline for over two months. The salvage team’s efforts were credited with protecting the historic and environmentally sensitive island where the HMS Beagle first landed in 1835 with naturalist Charles Darwin.

Mammoet Salvage and its partner, CPT Remolcadores SA of Chile, recently responded to a State of Emergency issued by the government of Ecuador after cargo ship Galapaface 1 – loaded with 19,000 gallons of fuel, petroleum products, chemicals and tons of various cargo – ran aground while departing the island of San Cristobal. Recognizing the imminent disaster and threat of pollution to the UNESCO world heritage site, the Government of Ecuador contracted Mammoet Salvage and CPT to begin immediate operations to remove the ship.

From the Navy News Service 1918 - Naval aviators of Marine Day Squadron 9 make the first raid-in-force for the Northern Bombing Group in World War I, when they bombed a German railroad at Thielt Rivy, Belgium. 1920 - The obsolete battleship Indiana (BB 1) is sunk in Tangier Sound, in the Chesapeake Bay. 1962 - A U.S. reconnaissance plane photographs a Soviet nuclear missile site under construction at San Cristobal, 100 miles west of Havana.

The transfer of the remaining oil from the wrecked oil tanker Jessica, which has spilt about 160,000 gallons of oil into the fragile ecosystem of the Galapagos Islands, has run into difficulties, according to Lloyds agents. "The army tanker arrived yesterday but the transfer operation is not possible because they cannot place the vessel close enough," Reuters reported. "According to latest news, the (Jessica) is now turned 45 degrees," it said. The report said only 40,000 gallons of oil remained on board the stranded tanker. It said the spill was affecting several bays of the Santa Fe, Santa Cruz and San Cristobal islands. The Galapagos Islands…

The global conservation body WWF called on Sunday for limits to shipping off Ecuador's Galapagos islands where oil pouring from a grounded tanker is threatening some of the world's rarest land and sea animals and birds. A statement from the Swiss-based World Wide Fund for Nature said the spill could have "a deep and lasting impact" on the creatures of Galapagos which were observed by British naturalist Charles Darwin as he developed the theory of evolution 165 years ago. The damaged vessel, the Ecuadorean-registered Jessica, ran aground last Tuesday half a mile (800 m) from the archipelago's main port in its easternmost San Cristobal island while its way to service an Ecuadorean navy operation and a private tour boat operator.

Ecuadorean naval officers struggled on Tuesday to right a wrecked ship half a mile (800 m) off the shore of Ecuador's famed Galapagos islands after nearly all the fuel it was carrying spilled into the ocean, threatening some of the world's rarest species. Ecuador's navy said officers were attempting to pull the "Jessica," an 835-ton ship that ran aground near the archipelago's capital, Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, a week ago, back to an upright position from its 45-degree list in order to get the remaining 15,000 gallons of diesel and bunker fuel off the craft. Some 160,000 gallons of the 240,000 gallons of diesel and bunker fuel -- a heavy…

It seems that the stricken oil tanker that fouled Charles Darwin's Galapagos island paradise cannot be moved and is set to become an artificial reef, teeming with fish and home to seals and exotic birds, the U.S. Coast Guard said on Sunday. The Ecuadorean Navy had hoped to clear the semi-submerged "Jessica" from the tiny harbor of San Cristobal island where it ran aground last week, leaking the bulk of its 240,000 gallon fuel cargo into the archipelago's pristine waters. But while the wreck may be an eyesore in the prophetically named "Shipwreck Bay," in time it will become an artificial reef and a new habitat for marine life, Coast Guard salvage chief Ed Stanton said. "Seals will start living on it, birds will begin perching on it. It has already attracted fish," Stanton said.

Tarquino Arevalo, captain of the Ecuadorean-registered Jessica which last week fouled the Galapagos waters with oil after running aground, told Reuters he had misjudged his entry into the prophetically named Shipwreck Bay outside the tiny harbor of San Cristobal island. "The truth is I didn't even know the rock was there. It was over-confidence on my part, I am completely to blame," the 58-year-old sailor said in an interview. "I didn't do it on purpose. This has nothing to do with my crew, it was my fault, not theirs," he added. The Galapagos are home to birds, tropical fish, sea lions and the famous Galapagos giant tortoises, but the only known damage so far to wildlife has been four dead pelicans and a dozen sea lions smeared with oil.

From the Navy News Service 1918 - Naval aviators of Marine Day Squadron 9 make the first raid-in-force for the Northern Bombing Group in World War I, when they bombed a German railroad at Thielt Rivy, Belgium. 1920 - The obsolete battleship Indiana (BB 1) is sunk in Tangier Sound, in the Chesapeake Bay. 1962 - A U.S. reconnaissance plane photographs a Soviet nuclear missile site under construction at San Cristobal, 100 miles west of Havana.