Storms force oil spill onto beaches

GUSTING winds and surging seas spread oil slicks to the major Spanish port of La Coruna as fishermen toiled in the dark to set up protective booms and meteorologists forecast more damaging storms for a region covered in sludge.

City officials laid floating barriers at a beach in north west Spain's Galicia region yesterday and called for help from a French oil-sucking skimmer boat to clear up oil that started leaking from the now-sunken tanker Prestige on November 13,

As 600 people up and down Galicia's "Coast of Death" spent another day shovelling sludge from the Prestige, which broke in two and sank on Tuesday off the coast of north west Spain, the regional government announced a 60 million aid package and set up a free phone number for people to volunteer with clean-up efforts.

Spain's central government also issued the first details of its own rescue plans, including a publicity campaign plugging Galician fish and seafood as safe to eat.

Even so, local officials enlarged an off-limits area where fishing and seafood harvesting are banned. It now covers more than 180 miles.

The fuel oil about 2.7 million gallons or more leaked from the Bahamas-flagged Prestige in several spills starting on November 13, when it cracked its hull in a storm.

Officials and some environmentalists said they hoped the oil spill on board would solidify in the cold and high pressure conditions on the ocean floor, 2.2 miles below the surface.

The coastal weather was so stormy on Wednesday that oil-skimming boats were forced to remain in port for a second straight day. Winds reached 67 miles per hour.