Oil disaster fishermen battle for 'richest' shellfish beds

Despairing fishermen have continued battling to defend Europe’s richest shellfish beds from a major fuel oil spill.

A worsening tide of pollution came ashore on the coast of north west Spain with slicks tarring beaches on a national park island.

The effects of the disaster caused by the sunken tanker Prestige was also spreading further along Spain’s northern coast towards France.

High winds from the north spread the oil spewed from the vessel to the southern stretch of Galicia’s coastline in Spain’s north-western Atlantic corner.

Patches were also reported to be moving along the northern coast into the Bay of Biscay.

Regional authorities confirmed some slicks had entered the fishery-rich Atlantic estuaries of Arosa, Vigo and Pontevedra, and had already tarred beaches on the island of Salvora, part of the Atlantic Island Natural Park which is home to great variety of protected fauna and flora.

“We fear the worst,” said Julio Alonso, president of the Association of Fishermen of Vigo, referring to the slicks entering the estuaries .

Oil patches, believed to be from the Prestige, were washed up on to some six beaches in the northern region of Cantabria, over 620 miles away from the Atlantic area directly affected by the Prestige and closer to France.

Spanish National Radio cited French officials saying they would recall their anti-pollution boats being used in Spain to protect their own coasts.

Spain’s other neighbour, Portugal, began deploying floating barriers across the mouth of a northern river, fearing slicks could drift south on to its shores.

For a second day, some 5,000 Spanish fishermen spanned out across the Atlantic estuaries, using nets with plastic sheeting, trash bins, shovels and even their gloved hands to grab frantically at globs of oil from the sea.

The estuaries, a series of craggy inlets, are home to mussels, oysters and other commercially valuable shellfish, an industry that generates nearly £200 million per year.

Seven anti-pollution ships, borrowed from European countries, worked at sea to try vacuum out the oil while hundreds of soldiers and volunteers continued to clean up the beaches up and down the coast.

The Prestige’s single hull cracked in a storm on November 13 and the ship leaked oil off the north-western Galician coast for six days until the tanker finally broke apart and sank while being towed to deeper waters.

Spain’s government estimates it spewed 17,000 tons of the 77,000 tons it was carrying. It says 7,000 tons have been recovered at sea by the anti-pollution ships, and another 2,700 tons of oil waste on land by crews using rakes and shovels.

The slicks have contaminated some 170 beaches in Galicia, killing or injuring several thousand birds and fish and several dolphins. These are only the known casualties.

A ban on fishing and shellfish harvesting has been extended to cover the 567 miles of the Galician Atlantic coastline from the fishing town of Cedeira in the north to La Guardia in the south on the border with Portugal. The measures affects some 30,000 families.

Deputy Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said a second dive by a French research submarine on Tuesday confirmed preliminary findings that there were no new leaks from the tanker, which lies on the ocean floor 2.2 miles down and about 155 miles west of Spain.

Rajoy said checks on the ship’s bow found “no cracks or holes of importance.”

The Nautile, best known for finding the remains of the Titanic, was to continue examining the wreck for another week.