The tourist boat Cormorant II (aka Galapagos Journey II), with licence no.TN-01-00-226, suffered mechanical damages while navigating near Punta Flores, on the north coast of Isabela Island. Aboard were 14 passengers and 8 crew members.

The Galapagos National Park patrol boat, Guadalupe River, was realizing a relief of personnel at the Bolivar Canal base (Isabela Island) when they received a distress call from the Cormorant II at aproximately 02h30 today.

The National Park park rangers immediately made their way to the site and successfully rescued all passengers and crew members, but the strong currents and waves that have been present in the past few days in the archipelago completely destroyed the catamaran, losing all material, documents and equipment that was aboard.

The crew members of the Guadalupe River provided first aid to various passengers that required minor attention. All the rescued individuals were transfered to the Itabaca Canal (north point of Santa Cruz Island) where they were received by the cruise operator.

Representatives of the Galapagos National Park will conduct a survey of the possible environmental damages, as at the time of the incident, the catamaran was carrying 1000 gallons of fuel in her storage tanks. The representative of the Cormorant II, Ángel Gustavo Villacís, will need to execute the necessary guarantees and mitigation procedures.

Original source (in Spanish) from El Comercio: http://ww1.elcomercio.com/noticiaEC.asp?id_noticia=307762&id_seccion=8