FINISTERRE - A French mini-submarine awaited calmer seas before heading out to inspect the sunken tanker Prestige for further leakage of the fuel oil cargo that has devastated beaches in northern Spain.
The submarine Nautile arrived in the Galician port of Vigo yesterday. It was expected to make a first dive
at the Prestige's watery grave, 210km out in the Atlantic, once sea conditions eased.
The three crew of the 8m-long submarine will examine the wreck of the Prestige, nearly 3.5km down on the ocean floor, and should finally answer the question of whether it is still releasing oil.
French Environment Minister Roselyne Bachelot and the Portuguese Navy both said last week that the Prestige was still leaking oil. But the Spanish Government insists no fuel oil has come up since the tanker broke up and sank on November 19.
Spanish officials say about 60,000 tonnes of heavy fuel oil in the Prestige's tanks will have solidified in the frigid ocean depths and any sheen on the surface above is due to traces of fuel used to drive the Prestige's engines.
Driven by strong winds and currents, 11,000 tonnes of fuel oil - spilled when the 26-year-old Prestige sank - have taken just 12 days to travel back to Spain's northwestern coast.
New patches of foul-smelling sludge are reaching beaches and rocky inlets on the Galician coast just as crews clean up 5000 tonnes of fuel oil spilled when the tanker's hull cracked on November 13.
A larger slick is 30km off shore and northwest winds could push it towards the coast. "You have to be prepared for the worst," Environment Minister Jaume Matas said yesterday.
Spain's King Juan Carlos plans to visit today fishing villages hit by the spill and Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar will have talks in Madrid with Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, of Denmark, the European Union president.
Aznar is pressing the EU to tighten maritime safety at its Copenhagen summit next week.
In its first use of a new Spanish get-tough national policy, the Spanish Navy on Sunday expelled a single-hulled Maltese oil tanker from Spanish waters.
Yesterday, for the first time, oil washed up on 10 beaches near Valdovino, 40km northeast of La Coruna, forcing Galician officials to extend a shellfish ban already covering 400km of coast.
Thousands of fishermen have been thrown out of work by the oil spill, which has paralysed Galicia's big shellfish industry. A wildlife group estimates 15,000 birds may have been killed or covered in oil.
Tens of thousands of demonstrators packed Galicia's capital yesterday to protest at the Government's response to the tanker disaster, which many consider inadequate.
Organisers estimate up to 200,000 people disregarded driving rain to join the rally in Santiago de Composte.
- REUTERS
Herald feature: Environment
FINISTERRE - A French mini-submarine awaited calmer seas before heading out to inspect the sunken tanker Prestige for further leakage of the fuel oil cargo that has devastated beaches in northern Spain.
The submarine Nautile arrived in the Galician port of Vigo yesterday. It was expected to make a first dive
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