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The Sea's Inhabitants Will Not Forget the 'Prestige' |
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By Tito Drago*
Bird, fish, mollusk and crustacean populations have been devastated by the "black tide" caused by the massive oil spill off the coast of northwest Spain and will take years to recover, say experts.
MADRID - Crustaceans like the 'percebe' (Pollicipes cornucopiae), hit hard by the oil slick released from the recent sinking of the 'Prestige' tanker off the Spanish coast, will need at least two years before they are free of contamination. For fish and mollusk populations, recovery will take an estimated four years.
Such is the ecological forecast of environmentalists, scientists and fishing union leaders concerned about the marine ecosystems following the spill of some 10,000 tons of fuel from the 'Prestige' when the tanker broke in two as it was being towed out to sea on Nov 19.
Sunk 3,600 meters below the Atlantic Ocean's surface, 250 km from the coast of the Spanish autonomous community of Galicia, the ship still holds an estimated 60,000 tons of oil. Leading marine biologists, like Portugal's Adriano Bordalo e Sá, warn that the remaining fuel will ultimately escape the deep-water tomb.
"The fuel is a refined product of slow biodegradability and will have very harmful effects on the food chain. Given its dissolvability, it will destroy the cell walls of the most sensitive marine organisms, but will also harm others," says Bordalo e Sá.
His diagnosis is backed by expert José Luis García, of Spain's Association for the Defense of Nature, who added that the fuel contains high levels of sulfur and is rich in polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, "similar to those that cause cancer in smokers," he said.
The oil spill affects the species that swim in the upper sea layer, but is especially harmful to those on the coast, such as birds and small organisms -- worms, snails, sea stars, sea urchins and seaweed -- which form part of the food chain, noted Victoriano Urigorri, director of the Marine Biology Station in the Galician city of La Coruña.
The leader of the local association of mussel producers, Lino Lamoso, provided a dramatic explanation of the gravity of the problem, pointing out that the 1992 sinking of the 'Mar Egeo' in 1992 halted the collection of that mollusk for three years.
The European Trade Union Confederation, an umbrella for most of the continent's labor groups, reports that thousands of workers will lose their source of revenues -- in fishing, livestock and sales of seafood -- as a result of the oil spill.
Spain's environment minister, Jaume Matas, insists that the Galician seaboard could be cleaned up in six months, as long as no more oil is leaked.
Attention has now turned towards measures to prevent future accidents involving oil tankers.
Juan López de Uralde, director of Greenpeace-Spain, is urging governments to establish laws that would end inappropriate shipping practices and retire unsafe vessels, as well as making the shipping industry more transparent and controllable.
The only aspect of the recent disaster on which there is consensus is that the route of the 'Prestige' came too close to the Spanish coast. And, as an older ship -- 26 years old -- it did not have the double hull used in the newer tankers.
Greenpeace reports that of the 3,760 oil tankers navigating the world's oceans today, 450 are 25 years or older and most of those are single-hulled.
The United States has banned entry into its ports by single-hulled vessels carrying petroleum or other dangerous substances. But the European Union has postponed implementing a similar measure until 2015.
Spain will propose to the EU, among other measures, that the ban take effect sooner and that traffic of vessels with dangerous cargo must be farther than 200 miles from the coast. The Spanish and French authorities agreed Nov 26 to ban the passage of outdated or poorly maintained oil tankers in their territorial waters.
* Tito Drago is an IPS correspondent.
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