Oil Tanker Prestige Carrying 800,000 gallons of OilBreaks Apart off Spain Major Eco-Threat
AL WEBB / UPI 19nov02
LONDON -- The World Wildlife Fund warned Tuesday that an oil tanker that broke in half and was sinking off the coast of Spain could trigger an ecological disaster far worse than the one Exxon Valdez wreaked in Alaska 13 years ago.
Radio and television reports said the Greek-owned but Bahamian-registered tanker Prestige, which left Latvia loaded with 77,000 tons of heavy fuel oil, snapped in half Tuesday morning about 150 miles off the northwest coast of Spain, and that the rear section immediately plunged to the ocean floor.
"The aft section has sunk," Lars Walder of the Dutch salvage company Smit Salvage told British ITV television news. "The front part is still floating," he said, "but it will sink. A lot of oil went down with the aft part."
Some 5,000 tons of the vessel's cargo were spilled shortly after the Prestige's tanks were ruptured in rough seas and gale-force winds off Spain's Galician coast six days ago, spreading what the WWF said was an oil slick 20 miles long. The slick quickly rolled onto scenic Spanish beaches.
The WWF said in a statement it was worried that "an environmental and human catastrophe" was in the making. If the Prestige's entire cargo -- more than 20 million gallons of fuel oil -- leaked into the sea, it warned "this would be one of the largest oil spills in the world."
The environmentalist organization said it would be "approximately twice as large as the Exxon Valdez disaster" of 1989, when that tanker struck a reef in Prince William Sound in Alaska, dumping an estimated 11 million gallons of crude oil across 1,300 miles of coastline.
"An oil spill of this magnitude would have a devastating effect on both marine life and on the population living along the coast," it said.
WWF spokesman Raul Garcia said the organization was working with the Spanish government "to see what mitigation measures we can help to put in place."
Meanwhile, a diplomatic row threatened to erupt between Spain and Britain over responsibility for the safety of the stricken tanker, which the WWF described as an aging, single-hulled ship that was en route from Latvia to the British colony of Gibraltar when it ran into trouble.
The London Times newspaper reported Spanish authorities were holding Britain responsible because the Prestige had visited Gibraltar in the past "and no inspection of an allegedly dangerous and unsafe ship had been carried out."
It quoted Spanish EU Transport Commissioner Loyola de Palacio describing it as "yet another case of tax evasion, smuggling and inappropriate behavior."
The British government has insisted that only once in the past four years has the Prestige called at Gibraltar, and on that occasion it anchored offshore, not in the colony's port.
British Ambassador Peter Torry in Madrid told the British Broadcasting Corp. that reports the tanker's final destination was Gibraltar was "complete nonsense" and that the ship was headed for Singapore.
Britain and Spain are involved in negotiations over an agreement under which Madrid would share sovereignty over the colony with London -- negotiations that have drawn sharp opposition from angry Gibraltarians, most of whom want to remain British.
Damaged Oil Tanker Prestige Breaks in Half
AP 19nov02
Madrid, Spain — A damaged tanker carrying more than 800,000 gallons of oil broke in two off the northwest coast of Spain on Tuesday, salvagers said.
The Bahamas-flagged Prestige, which sprung a leak during a storm last Wednesday, split in half around 8 a.m. local time about 240 kilometres off Spain's Atlantic coast, said Lars Walder, spokesman for the SMIT Salvage company.
He said it was not immediately known how much oil it had lost.
"Right now the two sides are still afloat and we are trying to disconnect them from the tugboats," said Mr. Walder.
He said it wouldn't take long for the ship to sink. He said there was a chance some of the oil compartments could remain in tact and plunge to the sea floor, moderating the spill damage.
"There is nothing more we can do," said Mr. Walder.
If the tanks burst, the oil would likely trigger a major ecological distaster in the area.
The vessel had sustained a nine- to 15-metre crack in the hull below the waterline which made it unable to proceed under its own power while salvagers sought a port to do repairs or transfer the oil to another vessel.
The tanker had already leaked an estimated 20,000 gallons of fuel oil Wednesday threatening rich fishing grounds off Spain's northwest coast. The government warned on Monday that the oil could seep into the many inlets that penetrate the Galician coast like crooked fingers.
The Interior Ministry said the ship was in an area for which Portugal had responsibility for maritime rescue operations.
Both Portugal and Spain had barred the salvagers from towing the ship to any of their ports to protect their fishing and tourism industries.
Most of the ship's crew were airlifted off the ship last week. The tanker's Greek captain, Apostolus Maguras, was jailed on charges of disobeying authorities and harming the environment.
The ship, owned by the Liberian-registered company Mare Shipping Inc., was bound for Singapore when the storm hit. Spanish authorities asserted the Prestige hadn't been inspected since 1999, despite regular stops in the British colony of Gibraltar — a charge that Britain denied.
Spain's northwest coast has suffered several tanker accidents in recent years. The worst was in 1992, when the Greek tanker Aegean Sea lost 21.5 million gallons of crude oil when it ran aground near A Coruna.
Ruptured oil tanker sinking off coast of Spain Spillfeared to be larger than Exxon Valdez
Greenpeace 18nov02
A ruptured tanker carrying 77,000 tons of fuel oil, almost twice what the Exxon Valdez was carrying, has split in two and begun to sink off of Spain's coast. "If it sinks, there will be a time bomb at the bottom of the sea," said Greenpeace official Maria Jose Caballero.
Oil has already washed up along the coast and birds and other wildlife have been contaminated. Once released, oil is very difficult to contain, and most will remain in the marine environment.
The vessel, the Prestige, was reported to have been about 250 kilometres (150 miles) from the Spanish coast when it broke up.
Most of the crew were evacuated after the tanker began taking on water during bad weather last week.
What will the disaster look like?
What can we expect the ecological disaster following the Prestige sinking to look like? Unfortunately, history can give us a pretty clear picture.
Shortly after midnight on March 24, 1989, the tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground on Bligh Reef, in Alaska's Prince William Sound, spilling 11 million gallons of Alaskan crude oil. Within days, approximately 700 miles of coastline were oiled; ultimately, detectable amounts of the spill were found 600 miles from the accident.
The spill killed an estimated 3,500-5,500 sea otters out of a total population in the region of approximately 35,000. Over 35,000 carcasses of oiled birds were recovered within the first four months of the spill; altogether, an estimated 300,000-675,000 seabirds perished. Ten years later, in February 1999, only two species of wildlife - bald eagles and river otters - were considered to have recovered from the spill's effects. Harbor seals, three species of cormorants, harlequin ducks, pigeon guillemots and a family pod of killer whales were still listed as "not recovering."
Subsequent studies have shown that some fish populations may still be affected, even by relatively low concentrations of chemical compounds found in oil. Although Exxon claims that the Sound has been completely cleaned, pockets of oil remain beneath the surface in a number of areas.
In fact, the Exxon Valdez was just one in a long and continuing line of major oil spills, in Alaska and around the world. It was not even one of the largest: according to the Oil Spill Information Center, there had been 39 larger tanker spills since 1960. If other forms of spills - such as those resulting from the Persian Gulf war, from a 1992 oil well blowout in Uzebekistan, or the rupture of a Komineft pipeline in Russia in 1994 - are included, it ranks only 53rd.
The danger of oil is not limited to spills
This latest accident reminds us of the inherent dangers of fossil fuels. In addition to the pollution caused by oil's extraction, transport and use, fossil fuels are causing climate change, the worst environmental problem we face today.
We must phase out of the use of oil and move towards clean renewable energy that can meet our needs without threatening our environment, now and into the future.
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