SPAIN: GOVERNMENT BEGINS TALKS WITH INTERNATIONAL OIL POLLUTION COMPENSATION FUND/ANGRY FISHERMEN PELT LOCAL MAYOR WITH OIL

Record ID: 217114

  • Title: SPAIN: GOVERNMENT BEGINS TALKS WITH INTERNATIONAL OIL POLLUTION COMPENSATION FUND/ANGRY FISHERMEN PELT LOCAL MAYOR WITH OIL
  • Date: 5th December 2002
  • Summary: (W5) ARGUINO, SPAIN (DECEMBER 3, 2002) (REUTERS) 1. SLV SMALL BOATS IN WATER; SLV FISHERMEN SCOOPING OIL FROM WATER SURFACE; SLV OIL BEING SCOOPED INTO BUCKETS; SLV BOATS; OIL FLOATING IN WATER (8 SHOTS) 0.43 2. SLV FISHERMEN SCOOPING OIL; WIDE OF SMALL HARBOUR 0.46 3. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) UNNAMED FISHERMAN: "We have no resources, we have no
  • Embargoed: 20th December 2002 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: ARGUINO AND CORRUBEDO, AND MUXIA, GALICIA, SPAIN
  • Country: Spain
  • Reuters ID: LVAF0OXVZOM269WGTMF60ZUUKUGH
  • Story Text: Spain has begun talks with the International Oil
    Pollution Compensation Fund on paying for devastation from a
    massive oil spill, while racing to protect wildlife habitat
    from an encroaching black tide.

    As oil continues to float ashore on the Spanish
    coast, fishermen are taking to small boats, scooping as much
    as they can into buckets, and carrying them ashore.

    But even as some areas of water or beach is cleared, more
    oil floats towards the coast.

    As one fisherman in the small town put it: "We have no
    resources, we have nothing. We have to take the oil with our
    own hands. The government is not helping us."
    At Arguino's port, angry fishermen covered in oil, chased
    away the town's mayor, Jose Luis Torres, as he tried to
    approach them and threw a lump of oil at him.

    It has been two weeks since the tanker Prestige broke in
    two and plunged to the bottom of the Atlantic off northwestern
    Spain, and the country is still mopping up thousands of tonnes
    of fuel oil.

    Elsewhere in the country a new oil slick menaced rich
    shellfish grounds and a nature reserve on the south coast of
    Galicia.

    The oil spill would be the 14th largest in history if all
    77,000 tonnes of the toxic goo were released into the sea.

    Already, 164 beaches have been coated with sludge and
    unknown numbers of fish, seabirds and dolphins have perished.

    On land, volunteers and hired teams had scraped 2,600
    tonnes of residue off some of the 164 affected beaches.

    In particular, environmentalists voiced concerns for the
    Corrubedo national park, a shallow lagoon which is home to a
    variety of fish and shellfish and is an important watering
    point for migratory birds.

    While the government has not provided an estimate of the
    oil spilled to date, environmental organisations have
    estimated it may total some 20,000 tonnes. The latest slick is
    estimated to be double the size of the first.

    Government officials say it has been reduced by a fleet of
    clean-up ships and is being contained by nearly 12 km (7.5
    miles) of barriers.

    At sea, five specialist ships continued to suck up fuel
    oil from the sea while three others unloaded 1,500 tonnes of
    the spill that was gathered on Sunday, the government said. In
    all some 7,000 tonnes have been extracted from the ocean.


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