The Prestige, a 26-year-old single-hulled ship managed by a Greek company and sailing under a Bahamian flag, leaked a trail of oil for six days after a 50-foot-wide crack opened in the ship’s hull during a storm. The ship was carrying nearly double the load of crude oil as the Exxon Valdez, which devastated hundreds of miles of Alaska’s coastline in 1989. The Prestige had not been inspected by port authorities for three years.

In their drive for profits, the shipping magnates have continued to utilize the vulnerable single-hull tankers filled beyond what they can safely carry rather than the more secure--and more costly--double hulled ones. The Prestige is one of about 500 "Aframax" oil tankers, which measure 70,000 to 110,000 deadweight tonnes. This class of ship makes up about one-third of the world tanker fleet.

The Spanish government made matters worse by deciding to tow the 791-foot-long leaking tanker 100 miles further out to sea, instead of bringing it into port where it would have been protected by calmer seas and booms to contain a spill, and the oil could have been removed. Instead, the impact of this spill has been spread over a much wider region. Miles-long slicks of the oil are being carried by currents eastward into the rich fishing areas off the coast of Galicia, a region of Spain, and could reach further south in Portugal.

The first wave of fuel from the sunken tanker--a slick 70 miles long and five miles wide--reached shore November 21 on Spain’s northwest coast.

"You can dump something 80 miles offshore, but the currents always bring everything back to this coast," commented Francisco Gómez, an octopus hunter from Corme. "We are sure all the slicks will hit us."

Galicia is the world’s largest producer of mussels, selling 3 million tons a year, and one of the richest fishing regions in Europe. So far more than 4,000 fishermen have had their livelihoods destroyed by the ban on harvesting fish that now extends for more than 180 miles of coastline in Galicia. Most affected are small, family-operated boats in an area that has more fishing vessels than the rest of the European Union.

"There are 3,500 people in O Pindo," said Joaquin Pineiro, 55, speaking about his village on the Galician coast, "and 100 percent live off the sea."

"Nearly 20 species of birds have already been affected," said Simon Cripps, a spokesman for the World Wildlife Fund.

About 80 percent of the 77,000 tons of diesel fuel originally on board the Prestige are now sitting 12,000 feet below the surface on the ocean floor. The oil containers not damaged by the fall may eventually corrode and burst apart at the rusty seams. It’s like "a time bomb at the bottom of the sea," said María José Caballero from the group Greenpeace. The fuel oil involved in this spill is more toxic than crude oil and more difficult to clean up, as it does not readily evaporate or break up.

To avoid taking responsibility for disasters such as this, the oil companies and ship owners consciously mask their ownership of these vessels. The Prestige, for example, was registered in the Bahamas; owned by Mare Shipping, a Liberian company; managed by Universe Maritime, a Greek company; and chartered by Crown Resources, a Swiss-based Russian commodities trader.

World seaborne trade has increased 37 percent over the past 11 years--from 3.9 billion metric tons in 1990 to 5.4 billion last year, and with it a drive by the ship owners to cut corners on safety in order to maximize their profits.

After the Exxon Valdez oil tanker disaster in 1989, U.S. authorities announced that single-hulled ships would be banned from U.S. ports--but not until 26 years later, in 2015. After a 1999 spill of some 3 million gallons of oil off the coast of France by a similar single-hull tanker, the Erica, the European Commission promised to put similar rules into effect.

Starting next July, "25 percent of all ships would be inspected before entering European Union ports, and ships flying flags of convenience would be singled out for inspection," reports the Washington Post, and "all single-hull tankers deemed less safe than double-hull ships would be phased out by 2015.... Other single-hull vessels would still be allowed."  
 
 
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