ENVIRONMENT REPORT - Galapagos Oil Spill
ENVIRONMENT REPORT
–
July 26, 2002: Galapagos Oil Spill
By George Grow
(Photo -noaa.gov)
This is the VOA Special English Environment Report.
Scientists say that as many as fifteen-thousand marine 1 iguanas 3 died on one of the Galapagos Islands after an oil
spill last year. The scientists are not exactly sure what killed the creatures. Yet they suspect the oil spill was to
blame.
Marine iguanas are found only in the Galapagos Islands. They are the only lizards 4
that live in the sea. They are found along coastal 5 rocks. They dive underwater to
search for plants to eat.
The Galapagos Islands are in the Pacific Ocean, about nine-hundred kilometers west
of Ecuador. They are famous for the unusual plants and animals that live there. That
is because the plants and animals developed differently from those on the nearest
continent, South America.
An Ecuadoran oil transport ship hit the coast of San Cristobal Island in the
Galapagos in January, two-thousand-one. Hundreds of thousands of liters of oil
spilled into the sea. Only a few creatures died immediately after the shipwreck 6. The weather and ocean currents
broke up most of the oil spill.
However, a new report says the spill had a far greater effect. Martin Wikelski is an ecologist at Princeton
University in the American state of New Jersey 7. He and his team have studied Galapagos marine iguanas since
nineteen-eighty-seven. Their latest findings were reported in Nature magazine.
The scientists estimate that the iguana 2 population on one island, Santa Fe, dropped sharply during the eleven
months after the oil spill. They say the number of marine iguanas fell from twenty-five-thousand to ten-thousand.
The scientists found that the oil spill did not seem to harm other areas. They found no change in the death rate of
marine iguanas on the island of Genovesa.
Mister Wikelski is still trying to find out why the marine iguanas on Santa Fe Island died. He suspects the
creatures swallowed oil and it killed bacteria in their stomachs. He thinks the bacteria help marine iguanas break
down the plants they eat. As a result, the iguanas that lacked the bacteria may have starved to death.
Mister Wikelski says even small amounts of pollution can have severe effects on wild animals. He and officials
of the Galapagos National Park are taking legal action against Ecuador’s state oil company, which owned the
ship.
This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by George Grow.
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- Marine creatures are those which live in the sea. 海洋生物是生存在海里的生物。
- When the war broke out,he volunteered for the Marine Corps.战争爆发时，他自愿参加了海军陆战队。
- With an iguana,you really don't have to say surprise.惊喜两字已经不足以形容这只鬣鳞蜥了。
- I'm going to turn on my computer and make a movie starring my pet iguanadj.打开计算机准备制作一部关于我的宠物蜥蜴的电影。
- Nothing lives in Pompeii except crickets and beetles and lizards. 在庞培城里除了蟋蟀、甲壳虫和蜥蜴外，没有别的生物。 来自辞典例句
- Can lizards reproduce their tails? 蜥蜴的尾巴断了以后能再生吗？ 来自辞典例句
- The ocean waves are slowly eating away the coastal rocks.大海的波浪慢慢地侵蚀着岸边的岩石。
- This country will fortify the coastal areas.该国将加强沿海地区的防御。
- He walked away from the shipwreck.他船难中平安地脱险了。
- The shipwreck was a harrowing experience.那次船难是一个惨痛的经历。