Fuel-laden tanker sinking off Spanish coast
Date: 15-Nov-02
Country: SPAIN
The Bahamas-flagged "Prestige" radioed Spanish rescue services to report it was in trouble 30 miles (50 kms) off the craggy coastline of Galicia, one of Spain's most remote and scenic areas.
Environmentalists said that if the 26-year-old tanker breaks up it could cause an ecological disaster in a largely unspoilt area of coastline.
A rescue helicopter has spotted traces of oil around the tanker, the Spanish government said in a statement.
"The ship is now listing and taking in water in rough weather," a spokesman for Swiss-based oil trading house Crown Resources, which owns the tanker's cargo, told Reuters in London.
Spanish television showed pictures of the tanker leaning heavily to one side in fierce seas with waves lashing over its deck.
Crown and Lloyds Casualty Reporting said all 27 crew members were rescued, but the Spanish government said so far only 24 crew members had been taken off by helicopter while three, including the captain, remained on board the distressed vessel.
Spanish rescue services dispatched helicopters and boats to rescue the crew but they had to contend with strong force 8 gales.
AREA OF ENVIRONMENTAL INTEREST
Crown said the ship was carrying a type of high-sulphur fuel oil. Specialist oil traders say this kind of oil will float on water and spread quickly.
Fuel oil, used in power stations and to drive ships, is much more difficult to break down than crude oil.
"If the fuel reaches the sea, it would be a disaster," Alberto Gil, a Galicia-based official with Ecologists in Action, told Reuters.
The region is an area of great environmental interest and includes protected coastline, rare species and a group of Atlantic islands that have been named a national park, he said.
The "Prestige" had sailed from the Baltic port of Ventspils, in Latvia, according to Lloyd's Marine Intelligence Unit. Crown said it was bound for Gibraltar.
The ship ran into trouble off Cape Finisterre, the most westerly point of mainland Spain. The cape earned its name because it was thought in ancient times to be the "end of the world".
The European Union launched a push to improve maritime safety after an oil slick off northern France in December 1999 when the Maltese-flagged tanker Erika ran aground, spilling its cargo of 8,000 tonnes of heavy fuel oil close to the shore.
The EU passed legislation in June last year to ban all single-hull oil tankers from its waters by 2015, in line with an international agreement to phase-out the ships. (Additional reporting by Stefano Ambrogi and Sujata Rao in London, Adrian Croft, Emma Pinedo and Jesus Aguado in Madrid).
