PRESTIGE OIL TANKER SINKS OFF SPAIN COAST - Dec 2002

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In Dec. 18, oil continued to leak from the sunken Prestige tanker at a rate of about 33,000 gallons per day, more than a month after the tanker ruptured. The Spanish government then closed the Galician fisheries and 1,000 miles of coastline, putting most of Galicia's population immediately out of work just before the height of the fishing and shellfish season.  

Environmental groups estimate that 15,000 birds have died so far, including rare and protected species. The Prestige could go on leaking its remaining cargo of 20 million gallons – approximately twice what the Exxon Valdez spilled into Prince William Sound in Alaska – for years, possibly until the year 2006. Read more at AlterNet.org.

Oil Spillage - photo: WWF

News and Press Releases

• Jan. 30, Reuters: "Prestige Tanker to Spill Thousands More Tonnes of Toxic Fuel"

• Jan. 17, Reuters: "French Fishermen Dump Oil in Protest Over Prestige"

• Dec. 5, Reuters: "Oil Leaking from Sunken Tanker"

• Dec. 2, U.K. Guardian: "Black Tide Brings Misery to Galicia"

• Dec. 1, AP/USA Today: "Giant Oil Slick Nears Spanish Coast"

• Nov. 21, Environment News Service: "Europe Looks to Maritime Rules After Tanker Spill"

• Nov. 20, CNN.com: "European capitals are calling for tougher measures to prevent future oil catastrophes after the sinking of a single-hull tanker off the Spanish coast."

• Nov. 20, The Economist: "Almighty Mess, Almighty Row"

• Reuters stories

• World Wildlife Fund: News, facts, images, diary

• Nov. 19, Friends of the Earth: "Make Oil Companies Liable"

• Nov. 19, International Transport Workers' Federation: "The Prestige is Bahamas flagged, American classed, Greek owned by a company that may or may not be registered in Liberia, and chartered by a business that could be Russian or Swiss. Nobody yet knows."

• Nov. 24, UK Observer article by Friends of the Earth: "Slick Business?"

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