8 Marine Oil Pollution
Cases Analysis
8.1
Case 1 Massive pollution feared as
oil spill tanker Prestige sinks off
Spain
Case 1 Massive pollution feared as oil spill
tanker Prestige sinks off Spain
? A leaking oil tanker split in two and sank Tuesday off
Spain's northwestern coast,spewing thousands of tonnes
of fuel oil into the sea and adding to a growing
environmental disaster along one of Europe's most
picturesque and wildlife-rich coasts,The two halves of
the 26-year-old single-skinned vessel went down in deep
waters some 250 kilometers off the Galician coast,a
spokesman for the Dutch maritime salvage company
Smit International said,"We hope and think the majority
of the oil is at the bottom of the sea in the wreck of the
ship," around 3.5 kilometers beneath the surface.
Case 1 Massive pollution feared as oil spill
tanker Prestige sinks off Spain
? The Bahamas-registered vessel,which was owned by a
company registered in Liberia,wasbelieved to have lost at
least 6,000 tonnes of heavy fuel oil when it sank,leaving
nearly 70,000 tonnes of the original cargo left in its tanks.
It had previously leaked 4,000 tonnes since last Wedneday,
when cracks began appearing in its single hull and oil
slicks began washing up on Spanish shores,Deputy Prime
Minister stressed that it was "premature to say what will
happen","First we must find out if the oil will remain in
the tanks,and then we'll see," he said,Antonio Cortes,a
researcher at Spain's Institute of Catalysis and
Petrochemistry,said,"Sinking is the best thing that could
happen to the Prestige" since the cold water and pressure
of the ocean basin could solidify the oil and keep it from
surfacing.
Case 1 Massive pollution feared as oil spill
tanker Prestige sinks off Spain
? But the environmental group Greenpeace sounded the
alarm,"This could become one of the worst oil
catastrophes in recent decades," said Fabrizzio Fabri,
scientific director of Greenpeace Italy,warning that more
oil could still rise from the wreck,Michel Girin,director
of the French state agency CEDRE,which carries out
research into marine pollution,said that the type of oil on
the Prestige is a nightmare to tackle,since it neither
evaporates nor gets broken down by the action of the sea.
"If the ship sinks it will be a source of permanent
pollution for many,many years to come",said Girin,
stressing that oil tankers that sank during World War II
were still polluting the Pacific Ocean,Environmentalists
on site said that over 250 birds of 18 species have washed
up on the shores of Galicia so far.
Case 1 Massive pollution feared as oil spill
tanker Prestige sinks off Spain
? Flying a Bahamas flag,the 42,000-tonne vessel
was being pulled by a Chinese tug in the employ
of the Smit salvage company when it broke up.
Rajoy said it sank off Vigo,and was in
international waters,The Japanese-built tanker --
which appears not to have been inspected since
1999,when the ports of Rotterdam and New
York both complained about security lapses -- is
a single-skinned vessel,a type which the
European Commission wants to phase out of
operations with upgraded safety standards.
Case 1 Massive pollution feared as oil spill
tanker Prestige sinks off Spain
? Fishing and shellfish collecting -- the backbone
of the local economy -- have been banned over a
150-kilometer stretch of coast,sullied by oil in
several patches,Regional authorities and rescue
crews are worried the spill may wreak major
damage on one of Spain's most beautiful coasts,
famous for their corals,marine life and seabirds.
Galicia is the region of the 15-nation European
Union most dependent on fishing and the
industry there employs 120,000 people.
Case 1 Massive pollution feared as oil spill
tanker Prestige sinks off Spain
? Regional officials are charting the progress of a
major 130-kilometer slick around 12 kilometers
off the coast,but said other slicks further out to
sea could take some time to reach shore,A
French decontamination vessel sent to the area
had recovered over 100 tonnes of the fuel from
the sea by Tuesday midday,as the cleanup efforts
continued,Neighboring countries Portual and
France expressed worry about pollution on their
shores and said they were preparing for the worst.
Like Spain,both depend heavily on fishing and
coastal tourism.
Case 1 Massive pollution feared as oil spill
tanker Prestige sinks off Spain
? There is a "serious chance that the Portuguese coast will
be affected by the oil spill," said Louro Alves,head
official at Portugal's northernmost port of Viana do
Castelo,Patrice Castaing,professor of marine geology at
Bordeaux University,said the extent of any pollution
"will depend on the current from Portugal that usually
flows along the coast from the start of December",At the
very least,Castaing said,"we will have some oil patches
on the beaches",The European Commission,meanwhile,
called on EU states to "urgently" implement EU-wide
rules on maritime safety,Transport Commissioner Loyola
de Palacio has reminded European governments of EU
rules that were established in the wake of the last such
disaster in Europe,when the Erika oil tanker went down
off the French coast in 1999.
Case 1 Massive pollution feared as oil spill
tanker Prestige sinks off Spain
? Port checks on single-skinned tankers like the Prestige
will be mandatory under EU law from July 2003,A
tanker of its build and age would be banned from EU
waters in 2005,and all single-hull freighters would be
phased out by French Transport Minister Gilles de
Robien said on Tuesday the European Union needed a
"maritime police force" to prevent unseaworthy vessels
travelling through EU state's waters,Ships with flags of
convenience -- flags of a country other than the country
of ownership -- remained "a real problem",Robien said.
Eco Matsers of Greenpeace in Amsterdam agreed,saying
countries like the Bahamas where the Prestige is
registered "do not demand high standards for the ships
they register,and the risks with such ships are high".
Case 1 Massive pollution feared as oil spill
tanker Prestige sinks off Spain
? The shipwreck has led to a row over who is
responsible,with Spanish officials saying the
tanker had crossed into Portugal's maritime
salvage zone and Lisbon vehemently denying the
claim,The Prestige was being towed out to sea
because Spanish,French and Portuguese
authorities had all refused to allow it to dock at
their ports,The tug was thought to have been
heading toward an African port.
Case 1 Massive pollution feared as oil spill
tanker Prestige sinks off Spain
? Nature of incident
The tanker PRESTIGE (81,564 DWT) suffered hull damage
during the afternoon of Wednesday 13th November in heavy seas off
northern Spain and developed a severe list,She was carrying a cargo
of some 77,000 tonnes ofheavy fuel oil,a quantity of which was lost
at the time ofthe initial damage and more was lost subsequently,The
casualty was taken in tow and moved away from the coast,By the
morning ofTuesday 19th November she had reached a position some
170 miles west of Vigo,Although attempts were made by the salvors
to minimise the stresses on the vessel,she broke in two early on the
19th and the two sections sank some hours later in water some two
miles deep,At the time of the sinking it was reported that a
substantialfurtherquantityofoil was released.
Case 1 Massive pollution feared as oil spill
tanker Prestige sinks off Spain
? It was thought that in excess of 5,000 tonnes had
been lost before the vessel broke up but the
amount lost when the two sections sank is not
known,The heavy fuel oil cargo has a similar
specification to that lost from the ERIKA,which
spilled 20,000 tonnes of fuel oil off the Brittany
coast of France in December 1999,This oil is
highly persistent and will not break up quickly,
even in severe weather.
Case 1 Massive pollution feared as oil spill
tanker Prestige sinks off Spain
? Oil released before the vessel broke in two has
come ashore intermittently along the
predominantly rocky coastline between Cabo de
la Nave and Punta Langosteira in North West
Spain,a distance of 100 - 150 km,However,the
most heavily affected area lies between Cabo
Tori?ana and Malpica.
Case 1 Massive pollution feared as oil spill
tanker Prestige sinks off Spain
? The oil released when the vessel broke up is so
far from the coast that it is too early to predict its
movement,The surface currents offshore are
relatively weak and this type of oil lies low in the
water and so is less affected by the wind than a
lighter oil,As a result it could be several days or
even longer before it is known where the oil will
come ashore,although the coasts of North West
Spain and Portugal remain those most clearly at
risk.
Case 1 Massive pollution feared as oil spill
tanker Prestige sinks off Spain
? Clean-up
Clean up operations are beingled by Spain's Sociedad Nacional de
Salvamento y Seguridad Maritima (SASEMAR),Attempts to recover
oil at sea are being undertaken by vessels from Spain,France and the
Netherlands although these activities are being hampered by the
severe weather conditions,During the days following the incident
booms were deployed to protect sensitive resources and in one
location a sand bank has been constructed across an inlet to protect
an area of wetlands,Spanish stocks of booms,skimmers and other
equipment are being supplemented by resources from Oil Spill
Response Limited (OSRL),On the shorelines OSRL and other
SASEMAR contractors are working with the Galician regional
government and individual communes assisted by men from the
SpanishNavy to recover oil from theshorelines.
Case 1 Massive pollution feared as oil spill
tanker Prestige sinks off Spain
? Impact of the incident
The affected area supports a rich and diverse fishing
and aquaculture industry,including the cultivation of
mussels,oysters,turbot and several other species,and the
harvesting of various 'wild' species of fish and shellfish.
The season for collecting goose-necked barnacles was
due to open on 18th November but has remained closed
and fishing within the affected are has been stopped.
Environmental concerns are mainly focussed on sites of
international importance for birds.
Cases Analysis
8.1
Case 1 Massive pollution feared as
oil spill tanker Prestige sinks off
Spain
Case 1 Massive pollution feared as oil spill
tanker Prestige sinks off Spain
? A leaking oil tanker split in two and sank Tuesday off
Spain's northwestern coast,spewing thousands of tonnes
of fuel oil into the sea and adding to a growing
environmental disaster along one of Europe's most
picturesque and wildlife-rich coasts,The two halves of
the 26-year-old single-skinned vessel went down in deep
waters some 250 kilometers off the Galician coast,a
spokesman for the Dutch maritime salvage company
Smit International said,"We hope and think the majority
of the oil is at the bottom of the sea in the wreck of the
ship," around 3.5 kilometers beneath the surface.
Case 1 Massive pollution feared as oil spill
tanker Prestige sinks off Spain
? The Bahamas-registered vessel,which was owned by a
company registered in Liberia,wasbelieved to have lost at
least 6,000 tonnes of heavy fuel oil when it sank,leaving
nearly 70,000 tonnes of the original cargo left in its tanks.
It had previously leaked 4,000 tonnes since last Wedneday,
when cracks began appearing in its single hull and oil
slicks began washing up on Spanish shores,Deputy Prime
Minister stressed that it was "premature to say what will
happen","First we must find out if the oil will remain in
the tanks,and then we'll see," he said,Antonio Cortes,a
researcher at Spain's Institute of Catalysis and
Petrochemistry,said,"Sinking is the best thing that could
happen to the Prestige" since the cold water and pressure
of the ocean basin could solidify the oil and keep it from
surfacing.
Case 1 Massive pollution feared as oil spill
tanker Prestige sinks off Spain
? But the environmental group Greenpeace sounded the
alarm,"This could become one of the worst oil
catastrophes in recent decades," said Fabrizzio Fabri,
scientific director of Greenpeace Italy,warning that more
oil could still rise from the wreck,Michel Girin,director
of the French state agency CEDRE,which carries out
research into marine pollution,said that the type of oil on
the Prestige is a nightmare to tackle,since it neither
evaporates nor gets broken down by the action of the sea.
"If the ship sinks it will be a source of permanent
pollution for many,many years to come",said Girin,
stressing that oil tankers that sank during World War II
were still polluting the Pacific Ocean,Environmentalists
on site said that over 250 birds of 18 species have washed
up on the shores of Galicia so far.
Case 1 Massive pollution feared as oil spill
tanker Prestige sinks off Spain
? Flying a Bahamas flag,the 42,000-tonne vessel
was being pulled by a Chinese tug in the employ
of the Smit salvage company when it broke up.
Rajoy said it sank off Vigo,and was in
international waters,The Japanese-built tanker --
which appears not to have been inspected since
1999,when the ports of Rotterdam and New
York both complained about security lapses -- is
a single-skinned vessel,a type which the
European Commission wants to phase out of
operations with upgraded safety standards.
Case 1 Massive pollution feared as oil spill
tanker Prestige sinks off Spain
? Fishing and shellfish collecting -- the backbone
of the local economy -- have been banned over a
150-kilometer stretch of coast,sullied by oil in
several patches,Regional authorities and rescue
crews are worried the spill may wreak major
damage on one of Spain's most beautiful coasts,
famous for their corals,marine life and seabirds.
Galicia is the region of the 15-nation European
Union most dependent on fishing and the
industry there employs 120,000 people.
Case 1 Massive pollution feared as oil spill
tanker Prestige sinks off Spain
? Regional officials are charting the progress of a
major 130-kilometer slick around 12 kilometers
off the coast,but said other slicks further out to
sea could take some time to reach shore,A
French decontamination vessel sent to the area
had recovered over 100 tonnes of the fuel from
the sea by Tuesday midday,as the cleanup efforts
continued,Neighboring countries Portual and
France expressed worry about pollution on their
shores and said they were preparing for the worst.
Like Spain,both depend heavily on fishing and
coastal tourism.
Case 1 Massive pollution feared as oil spill
tanker Prestige sinks off Spain
? There is a "serious chance that the Portuguese coast will
be affected by the oil spill," said Louro Alves,head
official at Portugal's northernmost port of Viana do
Castelo,Patrice Castaing,professor of marine geology at
Bordeaux University,said the extent of any pollution
"will depend on the current from Portugal that usually
flows along the coast from the start of December",At the
very least,Castaing said,"we will have some oil patches
on the beaches",The European Commission,meanwhile,
called on EU states to "urgently" implement EU-wide
rules on maritime safety,Transport Commissioner Loyola
de Palacio has reminded European governments of EU
rules that were established in the wake of the last such
disaster in Europe,when the Erika oil tanker went down
off the French coast in 1999.
Case 1 Massive pollution feared as oil spill
tanker Prestige sinks off Spain
? Port checks on single-skinned tankers like the Prestige
will be mandatory under EU law from July 2003,A
tanker of its build and age would be banned from EU
waters in 2005,and all single-hull freighters would be
phased out by French Transport Minister Gilles de
Robien said on Tuesday the European Union needed a
"maritime police force" to prevent unseaworthy vessels
travelling through EU state's waters,Ships with flags of
convenience -- flags of a country other than the country
of ownership -- remained "a real problem",Robien said.
Eco Matsers of Greenpeace in Amsterdam agreed,saying
countries like the Bahamas where the Prestige is
registered "do not demand high standards for the ships
they register,and the risks with such ships are high".
Case 1 Massive pollution feared as oil spill
tanker Prestige sinks off Spain
? The shipwreck has led to a row over who is
responsible,with Spanish officials saying the
tanker had crossed into Portugal's maritime
salvage zone and Lisbon vehemently denying the
claim,The Prestige was being towed out to sea
because Spanish,French and Portuguese
authorities had all refused to allow it to dock at
their ports,The tug was thought to have been
heading toward an African port.
Case 1 Massive pollution feared as oil spill
tanker Prestige sinks off Spain
? Nature of incident
The tanker PRESTIGE (81,564 DWT) suffered hull damage
during the afternoon of Wednesday 13th November in heavy seas off
northern Spain and developed a severe list,She was carrying a cargo
of some 77,000 tonnes ofheavy fuel oil,a quantity of which was lost
at the time ofthe initial damage and more was lost subsequently,The
casualty was taken in tow and moved away from the coast,By the
morning ofTuesday 19th November she had reached a position some
170 miles west of Vigo,Although attempts were made by the salvors
to minimise the stresses on the vessel,she broke in two early on the
19th and the two sections sank some hours later in water some two
miles deep,At the time of the sinking it was reported that a
substantialfurtherquantityofoil was released.
Case 1 Massive pollution feared as oil spill
tanker Prestige sinks off Spain
? It was thought that in excess of 5,000 tonnes had
been lost before the vessel broke up but the
amount lost when the two sections sank is not
known,The heavy fuel oil cargo has a similar
specification to that lost from the ERIKA,which
spilled 20,000 tonnes of fuel oil off the Brittany
coast of France in December 1999,This oil is
highly persistent and will not break up quickly,
even in severe weather.
Case 1 Massive pollution feared as oil spill
tanker Prestige sinks off Spain
? Oil released before the vessel broke in two has
come ashore intermittently along the
predominantly rocky coastline between Cabo de
la Nave and Punta Langosteira in North West
Spain,a distance of 100 - 150 km,However,the
most heavily affected area lies between Cabo
Tori?ana and Malpica.
Case 1 Massive pollution feared as oil spill
tanker Prestige sinks off Spain
? The oil released when the vessel broke up is so
far from the coast that it is too early to predict its
movement,The surface currents offshore are
relatively weak and this type of oil lies low in the
water and so is less affected by the wind than a
lighter oil,As a result it could be several days or
even longer before it is known where the oil will
come ashore,although the coasts of North West
Spain and Portugal remain those most clearly at
risk.
Case 1 Massive pollution feared as oil spill
tanker Prestige sinks off Spain
? Clean-up
Clean up operations are beingled by Spain's Sociedad Nacional de
Salvamento y Seguridad Maritima (SASEMAR),Attempts to recover
oil at sea are being undertaken by vessels from Spain,France and the
Netherlands although these activities are being hampered by the
severe weather conditions,During the days following the incident
booms were deployed to protect sensitive resources and in one
location a sand bank has been constructed across an inlet to protect
an area of wetlands,Spanish stocks of booms,skimmers and other
equipment are being supplemented by resources from Oil Spill
Response Limited (OSRL),On the shorelines OSRL and other
SASEMAR contractors are working with the Galician regional
government and individual communes assisted by men from the
SpanishNavy to recover oil from theshorelines.
Case 1 Massive pollution feared as oil spill
tanker Prestige sinks off Spain
? Impact of the incident
The affected area supports a rich and diverse fishing
and aquaculture industry,including the cultivation of
mussels,oysters,turbot and several other species,and the
harvesting of various 'wild' species of fish and shellfish.
The season for collecting goose-necked barnacles was
due to open on 18th November but has remained closed
and fishing within the affected are has been stopped.
Environmental concerns are mainly focussed on sites of
international importance for birds.
