SPAIN: AS fast as the oil slick from the wrecked tanker Prestige spreads along the Galician coast of north-west Spain, so too does the controversy about the accident, its causes, the responsibilities and the chaotic conditions in the clean-up operation.
Over the weekend, as volunteers worked frantically to remove the oil from the coast, the slick continued to reach more fishing grounds. Pushed 20 kms a day by gale force winds, the black sticky fuel oil polluted another 100 kms of coastline and spread into the Bay of Biscay.
Spanish authorities are coming under severe criticism from salvage experts. Mare Shipping, owners of the Prestige, contracted Smit Salvage to rescue the stricken vessel hours after the tanker's hull split open on November 13th and began to spill tonnes of oil. Their experts recommended towing the Prestige into a sheltered bay or harbour, otherwise, they warned, she was in danger of breaking up.
But the Spanish government refused authorisation and insisted the Prestige should be towed out to sea.
A decision which the experts believe exacerbated the damage and spread the oil over many square miles of the Atlantic and caused major environmental damage.
"The ship should never have sunk, and the spill could have been contained," said Mr Stewart Wade, of the American Bureau of Shipping which inspected and certified the tanker as seaworthy earlier this year.
"It leaked over 500 kms of coast instead of in a small area where it could have been contained. In the open ocean there is nothing that can be done except wait until the pollution comes ashore," he warned.
What has also emerged is the almost total lack of preparedness of the Spanish authorities to fight such an environmental disaster. The area where the Prestige was holed, either through metal fatigue or after hitting a submerged object, is known as the Costa da Morte (Death Coast) after the many shipwrecks which have taken place there.
In spite of two major tanker disasters and several smaller ones in the area over the past 26 years, there was a sorry lack of equipment to fight such an oil spill, insufficient inflatable barriers to contain a slick, and hardly any containers to hold the spilled oil after it has been cleaned up. Special boats equipped with special pumps to syphon oil up from the surface have been sent in from across Europe.
"Spain has learned nothing from history," complained the Voz de Galicia (Voice of Galicia), the regional newspaper. "We have had more experience than almost anyone else and should be in a position to give lessons to other countries instead of calling for their assistance."
Each town has organised its own operations, but there is no central body to co-ordinate them. Even Mr Manuel Fraga, the president of Galicia, was notable by his absence. He had gone shooting with friends near Madrid. Inflatable barriers were just dumped by the ports, but there were no facilities to pump them up.