It was one of
Europe's worst-ever environmental disasters.
اضافة اعلان
But 20 years after the oil tanker "Prestige" broke apart off
northwestern Spain, covering thousands of kilometres (miles) of Atlantic coast
with crude oil and killing 200,000 seabirds, some fear it could happen again.
The tragedy unfolded just off one of Spain's most scenic coastlines, turning
the beaches of Galicia "black", devastating the region's fishing
industry and leaving a trail of death and damage as far as France and Portugal.
The shock is still raw two decades on, said Alberto Blanco, former mayor of
the seaside town of Muxia, close to where the single-hulled Bahama-flagged
Liberian tanker first got into trouble during a storm on November 13, 2002.
The crew issued a distress call after a gaping hole several metres wide
appeared in the ageing vessel's hull.
As soon as he heard the news, Blanco recalled rushing to the seafront and
seeing the vessel was "very close to the coast and that the situation was
very serious.
"The ship was listing in very rough seas, with a swell that was six to
eight metres (20-26 feet) high," he said.
The following day its 77,000 tonnes of heavy-grade fuel oil began leaking
into the sea.
With the storm still raging, the Spanish authorities tried to tow the tanker
further out to sea, in a controversial decision that went against an emergency
plan drawn up by experts calling for it to be brought to port to contain the
leak.
- 200,000 birds
killed -
After six days adrift, the vessel broke in two and sank some 270 kilometres
off the Galician coast, coming to rest at a depth of 3,500 metres and causing
the worst-ever oil slick on the Iberian peninsula.
"The scope of the catastrophe was enormous," with consequences
"not only in Spain, but also in Portugal and France," said Sara del
Rio, a researcher with Greenpeace Spain.
In all, the tanker spilled an estimated 63,000 tonnes of fuel oil into the
Atlantic, coating nearly 3,000 kilometres of the coastline with foul black
sludge and killing nearly 200,000 seabirds, despite the efforts of tens of
thousands of volunteers.
"The rocks were full of black tar, and so were the beaches,"
Blanco recalled. "Cleaning them was incredibly difficult, because it was
slimy and sticky, and it just came back again with the tide, which gave you a
sense of impotence and rage.
"It was a never-ending battle."
After a cleanup that lasted months, and a complex trial that took years,
Spain's Supreme Court in 2016 found the tanker's skipper, its British insurer
The London P&I Club, and Liberian owner Mare Shipping Inc liable for the
disaster.
It sentenced the Greek captain, Apostolos Mangouras -- who was 67 when the
"Prestige" went down -- to two years in jail, and ordered that the
owner and the insurer pay 1.5 billion euros ($1.5 billion) in compensation,
mostly to the Spanish state.
Neighbouring France was awarded 61 million euros.
- 'Misguided
decisions' -
NGOs hailed the ruling, but expressed regret that no politicians were called
to account despite the "disastrous" decisions taken by the Spanish
government of right-wing premier Jose Maria Aznar and the Galician regional
authorities.
"There were misguided decisions, such as moving the ship away from the
coast instead of bringing it closer to a port to contain the impact," said
Greenpeace's Del Rio.
"It caused the spill to spread in such a way that it was impossible to
control it," she added, saying the court did not "draw all the
necessary conclusions".
Since the "Prestige" spill, the EU has tightened maritime safety
laws, banning single-hull oil tankers, ordering ship inspections in port and
setting up the European Maritime Safety Agency.
But such measures have not entirely eliminated the risk of a new oil
spill.
"At any moment a catastrophe like the 'Prestige' could happen
again," said Del Rios.
"Firstly, because there are still ships transporting oil that are in
poor condition. And secondly, because more and more fossil fuels are being
transported."
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