TOURIST SUBMARINE DETAINED IN GALAPAGOS ISLANDS
Two Britons have been detained for illegally piloting a tiny tourist submarine into the protected waters of the Galapagos Islands, officials of the environmental reserve belonging to Ecuador said on Tuesday.
The submarine crew and seven-members of a Panamanian ship that carried the undersea craft were caught without permits near the islands where Charles Darwin elaborated his theory of evolution.
"The use of submarines in the Galapagos National Park is forbidden," Edwin Naula, the tourism chief of the park, told Reuters. The nine seamen will be detained for at least a month, during the investigation, officials said. They had been hired by a group of 24 Russian tourists on a luxury yacht who allegedly paid $120,000 (65,000 pounds) for a 4-hour submarine trip through the Pacific Ocean archipelago, authorities said. The yacht carrying the Russian tourists has left Ecuadorean waters.
The mini-submarine belongs to a British company, Silvercrest Submarines, and is being held by the Ecuadorean Navy, officials said. Silvercrest was not immediately available for comment.
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