A 300-ton fuel vessel was recently reported to have been burning since Sunday in Montevideo Bay, Uruguay according to fire authorities. Crew members on board have also reportedly abandoned the ship safely.

Although the incident is currently developing, recent reports claim that the 40 crew members from the speculated Chinese ship vessel, which is carrying 300 tons of fuel, have safely been rescued, EFE reports.

The fire originated from the ship's engine room and rapidly spread throughout the vessel. The incident took place while the fishing boat was about to set sail to the South Atlantic fishing grounds on Saturday.

As of the moment, the authorities, including the Montevideo Port firefighters and the Fire Department, has done all efforts to avoid the vessel from sinking, which will further spill its oil contents.

"We're waiting for the fuel to be consumed because if we continue spraying water what we're going to do is sink it and spill the fuel, creating an ecological disaster," Fire Department spokesman Ricardo Piriz told the news agency.

The news outlet further revealed that about 62 cylinders of various gases have been removed from the boat since the fire broke and authorities believe that if it wasn't prevented and controlled, "they could have caused a chain explosion," Piriz added.

Furthermore, when the vessel reported the incident, the Montevideo Port firefighters responded right away, according to the publication.

In other news, Weather reported that a previous oil spill back in 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico was recently revealed to have had wide geographic implications.

Apparently, the incident affected over 300,000 juvenile sea turtles, which included endangered species like green, loggerhead and Kemp's ridley. And although the turtles' nesting populations were outside the U.S., the animals were exposed to the petrochemicals in the Atlantic Ocean.

The turtles came from parts of Mexico, the Caribbean, Northern South America and Western Africa, and all 95 percent of them were studied by researchers from the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science.

After their five-year observation looking at movements of ocean currents and the turtles that would have been within the vicinity of oil-impacted water, the researchers revealed that the sea turtles' organs were damaged, which further decreased their survival and reproductive rate.

"What we're hoping is that this information will be useful in how to best restore turtle populations," Nathan Putman, lead author on the study told the news outlet.

"If we want to mitigate the problem, the remedies will be more complicated than cleaning up the Gulf of Mexico," Putman added.