"On Peru’s protected Fishermen’s Island, birds are still dying a month after oil spill", 10 February 2022

...Almost a month after more than 10,000 barrels of crude spilled into the Pacific Ocean from a tanker onloading at a Repsol SA refinery near Peru’s capital, Lima, marine birds are still dying from oil floating in the water they once dived into.

The government has banned fishing near the spill, which President Pedro Castillo has called Peru’s worst environmental disaster in recent history. The Spanish oil company has hired professional companies and fishermen to help clean it up.

On Wednesday, officials collected 16 oil-covered dead birds and rescued three that were barely alive on Isla Pescadores...

Before the spill, the island was home to 160,000 Guanay cormorants, according to Sernanp, as well as a large number of Peruvian boobys and Humboldt penguins. These birds are under threat from the oil, which is most visible on their chests and beaks.

“The problem is when they clean their feathers, they end up swallowing the oil,” said Carlos Saldana, a Sernanp official.

The oil slicks, Sernanp officials said, are no longer thick black sludge as in the first days after the spill. They are now diluted and brownish, which makes them harder to spot...

Peruvian regulators say Repsol has taken too long to clean up the spill but the Spanish company says it is working as fast as possible and that it has been denied access to protected areas affected by the slick, like Isla Pescadores.

Peru’s environment ministry did not respond to a request for comment on access to protected areas.

Repsol has said it will finish cleaning the ocean later this month and complete the entire cleanup by the end of March...