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The Spanish Scientific Committee has
calculated that more than 25,000 tons of fuel
have already escaped from the Prestige,
whilst a further 50,000 tons still remain
trapped in the two sections of the ship,
which are lying at a depth of 3,800 meters,
separated by a distance of more than a
kilometre. In spite of efforts to seal the
leaks, a process that is both difficult and
costly, an estimated 80 tons of fuel continue
to escape every day from cracks in the hull.
Now 500 kilometres of coastline have been
directly affected and a similar area is
suffering indirect consequences of the toxic
oil spill.
As a consequence of the disaster, one of
the most important areas for shellfish
production in the world, an area famous for
its rich fishing grounds, has been seriously
damaged. The devastating effects of the
unrefined oil spill have reached the wildlife
Atlantic Islands National Park, an important
point of call for thousands of migratory
birds and valued by ornithologists as a
unique and exceptionally well preserved
ecosystem.
Friends of the Earth Galicia, a very active
member group of FoE Spain, has severely
criticised the inactivity of the European
Union. Instead of learning a lesson from the
disasters of the Exxon Valdez and Erika
disasters, the European Union has continued
to permit the use of single hulled oil
tankers in the shipping lanes that pass close
to the Galician coast, as well as allowing
them to dock.
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According to the Spanish government, the
Prestige catastrophe will cost 1,000,000,000
euros. Economically it is a tragic blow for
Galicia, a region in which a large percentage
of the population depend on the sea: fishing,
shellfish harvesting or related industries
like the marketing or processing of
shellfish. The tourist industry will also be
detrimentally affected. Galicia receives
hundreds of thousands of tourists every year,
who arrive to enjoy the beautiful coastal
scenery as well as the famous gastronomic
seafood delicacies of the region.
When
the disaster happened, FoE Galicia
immediately set up teams of volunteers to
coordinate relief efforts. In the coastal
city of Vigo, volunteers of FoE Galicia are
working with the “Rescue Centres for Fauna”
that have been established. They have
donated, not only volunteers’ time, but also
equipment, vehicles and their own personal
economic resources. They have set up patrols
in the coastal areas to collect birds
affected by the oil spill and have created a
First Aid Centre in Gondomar where the birds
can be stabilised before passing to the
“Rescue Centres”. Together with other NGOs,
fishermen’s associations and town councils,
FoE Galicia is coordinating the volunteers
arriving from all over Spain and other
countries to participate in the beach and
rock cleaning activities. To date, more than
a thousand volunteers have been helped by FoE
Galicia to find lodgings, equipment and to
learn how to work in the clean up of the
toxic oil spill. Volunteers continue to
arrive, sometimes for a weekend, sometimes
devoting their entire holidays to help in the
clean up. No one doubts that it is a job that
will need to continue for many more months,
since the fuel continues to escape from the
sunken ship and wash up on the coast of
Galicia on a daily basis.
The effects of the oil spill continue to
spread and have recently reached, although to
a lesser extent, the coasts of Cantabria,
Asturias and the Basque country. Like many
local groups, FoE Galicia has limited
resources and does not receive much support
from public administrations, although in
spite of this they have continued to work
ceaselessly. FoE Spain and its local groups
are calling upon their members to support FoE
Galicia and to raise funds to help their
efforts to fight against this terrible
environmental disaster, a tragedy whose
effects will be with us for a long time.
Find out more about a
Spanish NGO joint
declaration
concerning this disaster.
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