Dozens of small boats and local fishermen took to the sea yesterday morning in a frantic effort to prevent a new oil slick destroying their fishing grounds in northern Galicia.
Meanwhile, the European Commission proposed a fast-track ban on tankers like the Prestige which is causing the damage to the Spanish coastline.
Since the Prestige sank on November 20th, contaminating many kilometres of the shoreline, a major worry was that the oil would drift south and reach the even richer grounds of the Rias Baixas. Yesterday their fears came closer to realisation when a 300m by 150m slick was spotted only 10 miles off the Ria de Arosa which holds the largest oyster, mussel and shellfish beds in Europe. Some 12 kms of inflatable booms were erected at the mouth of the river, and the fishermen made their own barriers by stringing together hundreds of lobster and octopus pots with lines and nets.
They went to sea in their small motor boats using buckets to clean up smaller slicks and, on the larger boats, used the scoops designed to lift mussels from the beds to lift up the larger clumps of viscous black fuel oil which threatens to poison their livelihood.
Four more ships from the UK, Denmark and Italy arrived yesterday to join the seven others from Europe already co-operating in the clean-up operation.
The UK tanker British Shield, which has tanks capable of holding 6,000 tonnes of oil, will patrol between the other ships and take the oil they have collected, enabling them to continue working rather than return to port as they fill their own smaller tanks.
The French mini-submarine Nautile made its second dive to the wreck of the Prestige as it lies 3,600 metres below the surface. It located the bow on its first dive and is expected to use a roving robot to get closer to the tanks and photograph them.
First reports suggest that they found no signs of oil leaking from the tanks and there are hopes that the cold water at such a depth will cause the oil to solidify and remain on the sea bed.
It is exactly 10 years since the same area saw a major tanker disaster when the Aegean Sea ran on to rocks, exploded and sank off La Coruña in December 1992. Although some of her 80,000 tonnes of crude oil burned in the fire which ensued, more than 200 kms of coastline were contaminated by the resulting oil spill - some of them still have not recovered and wildlife has not returned. Five-thousand fishermen and their families were unable to work, and many of them complain they are still waiting for the final compensation payments. In an attempt to prevent similar delays in payouts to the fishermen and their families in the latest disaster, the government announced yesterday that they are opening an office to coordinate aid and subsidies.
The European Commission said yesterday single-hulled tankers like the Prestige should be prohibited from ferrying toxic heavy fuel oil, calling the need so urgent that it should bypass the normal bureaucracy and be taken up by heads of state and government at a summit in Copenhagen next week.