Penguins at risk from oil-spill in Antarctic shipwreck

SANTIAGO: About 2,500 penguins and other marine species have been endangered from the fuel oil spill off the coast of Antarctica where the cruise ship Explorer sank last week, the Chilean navy said.

The navy said Tuesday it has been carrying out "mechanical dispersion manoeuvres" on the site. The process allows dilution of the oil as it comes in contact with air and disperses it in the ocean faster than crude oil would.

The floating icebergs in Antarctic are important habitat for penguins and sea birds. The oil-spill has contaminated them, endangering the wild animals, the navy said.

The Explorer went down last Friday in the Bransfield Strait, some 76 km east of King George Island, 15 hours after crashing into an iceberg.

The 154 passengers and crew aboard escaped unhurt, although they had to spend four hours at sea in lifeboats.

They were rescued by another cruise ship Nord Norge, which transported them to Chilean and Uruguayan bases on King George Island. They were evacuated to Punta Arenas over the weekend by Chilean military aircraft.

The Chilean navy, crewmembers of the icebreaker Almirante Oscar Viel, experts from the Antarctic Institute and the National Commission for Environment are at the site to monitor the situation. The diesel fuel from the Explorer has settled at a depth of almost 1,500 meters.

Argentina will seek to restrict tourists to Antarctic in the wake of the Explorer accident, the country's environment secretary Romina Picolotti said.

"This is a wake-up call for the tourism industry. We don't need floating fuel. We're now going to work to limit the flow of tourists, which in recent years has doubled: this summer 30,000 tourists are expected in the Antarctic," Picolotti said.