Britain sends 50,000 to oil-hit Galapagos

THE Foreign Office today gave 50,000 to help clean up the oil slick which is threatening some of the world's rarest species on the Galapagos Islands.

It came as scientists waited to see if a last-minute wind and tidal shift would avoid an ecological disaster.

Foreign Office Minister Peter Hain announced the package which was for "technical and other assistance" after the government of Ecuador declared a state of emergency for the islands 600 miles out in the Pacific, which were crucial to Charles Darwin's development of the theory of evolution.

The 400 square mile slick consisting of 180,000 gallons of diesel and 80 gallons of bunker fuel from the tanker Jessica, which ran aground on a reef less than a mile from the island of San Cristobal, appeared to be now moving in a northwest direction away from the islands, an Ecuador government spokesman said.

The spill threatening the World Heritage Site was now "a problem not a tragedy", he added.

British-born Dr Robert Bensted-Smith, of the Charles Darwin research centre on the archipelago, said: "We are not out of the woods yet but in general we expect the ecosystem to recover."

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