| Subject: Re: Ecological Disaster - Criminal Charges |
Author:
Giovanna
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Date Posted: 17:16:02 12/01/02 Sun
In reply to:
Giovanna
's message, "Ecological Disaster" on 17:30:47 11/20/02 Wed
Spain blames UK for oil disaster
Giles Tremlett in Madrid
Monday November 18, 2002
The Guardian
A layer of thick black fuel oil from the stricken Prestige tanker coated a 100-mile stretch of Spain's scenic north-west Atlantic coast yesterday, devastating local fishing grounds, coastal ecosystems and birdlife.
As the ageing, single-hulled Prestige sprang a new leak and began spilling more of its 77,000-tonne load last night, Britain and Spain became embroiled in a bitter row over who was to blame for the reportedly decrepit state of the vessel.
The Spanish government produced documents from shipping authorities in Latvia and France allegedly showing the Prestige was bound for Gibraltar, a revelation that could worsen the political row over the Rock.
Spanish authorities claimed the tanker would not have been allowed entry into any other European port, because it did not meet EU security regulations.
"In Gibraltar we see yet another case of tax evasion, smuggling and inappropriate behaviour," the EU transport commissioner, Loyola de Palacio, told El Pais daily.
The Swiss-based oil trading house Crown Resources, which owns the oil on the Prestige, has repeatedly said the vessel was going to Singapore.
Britain's ambassador to Madrid, Peter Torry, dismissed as "complete nonsense" suggestions the Prestige was heading for Gibraltar.
A new three-square-mile slick formed around the vessel, which was 60 miles of the Cape of Finisterre last night as experts speculated that a third storage tank on board had split. That could bring the total spill so far to around 4,500 tonnes, with some experts still predicting that the Prestige would break up and lose its entire cargo.
WWF, formerly the World Wide Fund for Nature, said if all the oil leaked it would be one of the largest spills in history and about twice the size of the Exxon Valdez spill off Alaska in 1989.
Spanish authorities yester day banned fishing in the area and tried to protect fragile wetland sites with floating barriers and walls of sand.
But with the slick threatening a length of coastline stretching from Cape Finisterre to Coruna and with huge waves breaking over the barriers, attempts to keep the oil away from the coast were largely failing.
Bird rescue centres reported that they had begun to fill up with tar-coated cormorants, gannets and gulls rescued from the region's beaches.
Local fishermen and those who harvest the wealth of goose barnacles, mussels, crabs and octopus sat watch gloomily on rain-lashed cliffs and beaches as black waves washed over some of Europe's richest seafood grounds.
"There is nothing left. It is as if someone had taken a brush and painted every single rock black," said Fernando Vidal, from the fishing port at Corme.
A sense of despair set in among fishermen on this exposed, rugged and wind-battered corner of the Iberian peninsula known as "the coast of death" because of its long history of shipwrecks and other maritime disasters.
"It makes our hearts sink," said Ramon Bua, from the port of Muxia, where some 500 people were reckoned to have been left without employment.
Spanish newspapers unanimously proclaimed "an ecological catastrophe" after the slick, which began forming four days ago, was blown inshore at the weekend.
But authorities insisted that by towing the stricken tanker 60 miles out to sea they had prevented a repeat of the disaster caused by the grounding of the Aegean Sea tanker near Coruna harbour 11 years ago.
Fisherman and environmentalists warned that, although the amount of oil spilled since the tanker ran into trouble on Thursday was only a 10th of that shed by the Aegean Sea, the impact on local ecosystems would be worse.
"We are seeing far more birds affected, and a much wider expanse of both sea and coast," said Antonio Sandoval of the Spanish Ornithological Society.
The strong winds that blew the oil on to the coast also hampered attempts by rescue tugs to pull the stricken tanker further out to sea.
The state of the 800ft Prestige, built in 1976, continued to deteriorate as fierce seas reportedly ripped off part of the upper deck and a widened an already gaping hole in its side. Authorities warned that weather conditions would worsen again last night.
A spokesman for Smit Salvage, the Dutch company in charge of the rescue operation, said stormy weather made it impossible to transfer fuel from the ship.
The Greek captain of the 26-year-old Bahamas-flagged Prestige, Apostulus Maguras, was remanded in custody by a judge in Coruna yesterday on suspicion of disobeying authorities and harming the environment.
The EU has agreed to phase out single-hull tankers by 2015.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/spain/article/0,2763,842349,00.html
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