King visits Spain's oil-stained coastline

Walking in the muck of an oil-stained beach, King Juan Carlos was received respectfully today by fishermen whose livelihoods are imperilled by the massive spill from a tanker that sank off Spain’s north-west coast.

“We’re very grateful that he came to see the problem firsthand,” said Daniel Castro, 46, a skipper.

“He went down and got his feet dirty. The only way to resolve a problem is to be in the middle of it.”

Arriving by helicopter, the king met with residents and the local fishermen’s association. He cast an occasional glance at the sticky soles of his shoes.

“We know that the king can only bring us his solidarity, not a solution,” said Javier Sar, head of the fishermen’s association. But even that helps.

“We were the last to realise how serious this was,” Sar continued. “We were blinded by optimism. With every day that goes by, people are more pessimistic.”

On a chilly, overcast day, volunteers and armed forces personnel resumed cleaning Galicia’s shoreline while readying more barriers to fend off the floating masses of oil.

Specially-equipped ships from several European countries kept suctioning the slicks, the main one about 22 miles offshore.

The oil leaked from the tanker Prestige last month when its hull ruptured in a storm. It then broke in half and sank. An estimated 20,000 tons (5.3 million gallons) spilled. The rest, about 57,000 tons, sank with the Prestige.

An estimated 8,000 tons has been recovered at sea or from land, the latter by back-straining labour of hundreds of young men and women including university students bussed from across Spain, working with shovels, rakes and pails.

An estimated 15,000 birds have perished or been injured by the oil, according to Enrique Diaz of the environmental group SEO BirdLife.

The spill has contaminated 164 beaches from La Coruna, a major port, south to Cape Finisterre, the government said today, .

The government banned fishing and shellfish harvesting – the main economic activity in Galicia – for several hundred miles.