Tanker spill disaster hits fishing, wildlife

MADRID - The breakup of a leaking tanker off Spain may herald one of the world's worst oil spills, but experts say its distance from the coast and the water conditions may reduce ecological devastation.

If the Prestige lost all its 77,000 tonnes of fuel oil, it would rank 14th in world tanker spills, a list topped by the Atlantic Empress off Tobago in 1979 with 287,000 tonnes of oil.

It would be just ahead of the 74,000 tonnes of oil lost by the Aegean Sea, which sank in 1992, also off northwest Spain.

"It's already a huge disaster - thousands of fishermen are out of work, oil is coming onto beaches. This will also be one of the worst in terms of its impact," said Sian Pullen, head of the European Marine Programme at the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

But she added that bacteria in the sea could help disperse the oil more quickly than, for instance, in the chillier waters of Alaska, where the Exxon Valdez ran aground in 1989, or the Erika disaster off northern France in December 1999.

Also, the distance from land could help because the high seas will break up oil slicks before they reach beaches.

The Bahamian-registered Prestige sank on Tuesday, 210km off northwest Spain, adding 5000 to 6000 tonnes of oil to the 5000 tonnes spilled since its hull cracked last Wednesday.

The type of oil in the Prestige could also reduce the impact of the spill. Experts said the fuel oil was of a lighter type than in the Erika, which spilled about 22,000 tonnes, and more refined than the crude in the Exxon Valdez, which lost 34,000 tonnes.

"Some of the worst very heavy components will have been refined out," said David Santillo, a scientist with Greenpeace. "It all depends on the direction of the wind."

The Braer oil tanker grounded off Britain's Shetland Islands in 1993, spilling 85,000 tonnes in the biggest tanker spill of the past decade. But it had a light crude that dispersed far more quickly than doomsayers predicted at the time.

The impact of the Exxon Valdez, which ranks 20th by size in the spill ranking by the International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation (ITOPF) with 37,000 tonnes, was magnified because it was in a narrow sound in very chilly waters.

Exxon spent US$2 billion cleaning up after the spill.

A decade after the Exxon Valdez, only bald eagles and river otters were considered as having recovered, Greenpeace said. Harbour seals, cormorants, ducks and pigeon guillemots were still struggling in 1999.

In the worst case, the tanks on the Prestige would implode from the pressure if both parts of the vessel sink in waters 3600 metres deep.

If the tanks survive the sinking, oil would leak through the rusting metal in coming decades. Marine life would be more able to adapt to such a slow-fuse timebomb than to a catastrophic spill. The depth of the water would make salvage impractical.

Hugh Parker, a technical manager at ITOPF, said there were examples of tankers sinking without rupturing their tanks.

Oil from the Prestige is killing seabirds on Iberian beaches but will also kill fish in the high seas, even if much of the oil breaks up far from land. Small particles of oil can clog the gills of fish, suffocating them.

Whales and dolphins, which surface to breathe, have a better chance of swimming round slicks.

"These types of spill are happening because of our continued reliance on fossil fuels," Greenpeace's Santillo said. Greenpeace wants far more stress on renewable energy and cuts in the use of fuels like oil and gas, blamed for global warming.

Cheap, ageing tankers will remain a pollution threat to European waters until new laws take effect 13 years from now, experts say.

Even as Spain struggles to contain the Prestige spill, dealers are planning similar shipments that make money by chartering old tankers at cheap freight rates.

Not until 2015 will Europe outlaw single-hulled oil tankers like the Prestige. Double-hulled vessels are less prone to spills.

The long delay is defended by the shipping industry as a viable investment timescale, but bemoaned by environmentalists as too slow.

"There are hundreds of older vessels in the world fleet that are simply ticking time bombs. The fact is, they shouldn't be allowed to carry toxic cargoes, never mind pass anywhere near pristine coastlines," said one European salvage expert.

It is unclear who is to blame for Europe's latest tanker spill. But if previous wrecks are anything to go by, the investigation will prove difficult.

"There is a morass of liability," said Santillo. "As soon as there is an incident like this everyone throws up their hands and tries to deny responsibility. That really has to change.".

The Prestige is Liberian-owned, registered in the Bahamas, operated by a Greek company, chartered by a Swiss-based subsidiary of a Russian conglomerate and classed as seaworthy by an American shipping authority.

- REUTERS

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