©2002 Manuel Bauer / Lookat
On 19 November 2002, on the Spanish coast close to Cap Finisterre in Galicia, the oil tanker " Prestige " sinks, a 25-year old ship with 70'000 tons of high sulfuric fuel on board . The consequences at full are yet to be foreseen, but the catastrophy already led to an oilspill along the Spanish and French coast. Several hundred kilometers of coastline have been coated in oil sludge since the disaster, and the tanker, now on the ocean floor, is still leaking. Experts say the sunken Prestige could continue leaking fuel oil until 2006, causing long-lasting damage to the coastline of north-west Spain. Anyone trying to extract the fuel would face the arduous task of dealing with a wreck that lies more than 3000 meters under the surface of the Atlantic, in an area some 240 kilometers off cape Finisterre, which is infamous for its bad weather. Fishermen were on alert for another toxic tide that could soon hit the north-western coast. Volunteers continued the clean-up at beaches while anti-pollution boats took advantage of an improvement in weather to go out to sea to suction oil.
The centre-right government of Jose Maria Aznar, which has been heavily criticised for its handling of the Prestige affair, finally admitted that the tanker was still leaking 125 tonnes of fuel oil a day from some 14 separate cracks.
photographs by Manuel Bauer / Lookat
text available upon request by Christain Schmidt / Kontrast
related story:
The Prestige Oil Spill
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