HUNDREDS of phone calls of people from ALL OVER THE WORLD, who want to come and help clean up, are being received daily, and at the same time the city council is telling them not to come at all, turning them down…it is not necessary. The local government still hasn’t sorted out picking up the residues with any company at all and the filled buckets arriving from the beaches (with a lot of effort), are left scattered in the ports and in the corners of the sand dunes with no one at all coming to pick them up.

People are cleaning with out masks, gloves etc and an independant health association has analysed the combustible (on their own accord of course) and are warning that it could be carcinogenic to it inhale due to the gases emitted and the high level of sulfurates. I can assure you that after 2 days on the beach the noise that you produce when you are breathing is like having your lungs full of silicone. Black snot comes out of your nose too.

Dozens of pelicans are dying on the beaches because the people from ‘wildlife rescue ' are extremelly over worked. I have been helping to rescue birds in Barranan, taking them in MY buckets and MY car because no one was doing any thing about them. The people from the civil protection are not on the beaches either. There isnt a single expert-technician evaluating the situation. THEY ARE NOT GOING TO CLEAN THE ROCKS because according to the local government "the sea will take it away". Our coast is totally tarmarcked as if it was a road and it is already solidified.

Greenpeace has been to El Ferrol cleaning WITH THEIR OWN RESOURCES and the police has kicked them out of the beach so that the media don’t get to see them.
They are not going to ask for the declaration of 'catastrophic zone' because according to one of the executives THERE IS NO BLACK TYDE.

The company that owns Prestige has fleeted another boat with the same quantity of freight to accomplish the original order, of course. That boat will do the same journey and stop in La Coruna if no one does anything about it. This boat was retained for more than a week in European port and a sanction was imposed on it for the grave deficiencies it presented. It only has one storage chamber and its already been sailing all over the world for 26 years filled up with crude oil. With a bit of luck La Coruna's ria, the only one that wasn’t destroyed, might get tarmarked in a couple of weeks.

Portugal is controlling the evolution of the black spots in the sea via satellite and insists that there is more oil leaking from the sunken boat. The local authorities say that it is a lie with out giving any prove, in the meantime the Portuguese are publishing photos via satellite.

The boats that are going out to sea to fish in the authorised zone are pulling their nets: ALL OF THEM surface and deep-sea types – come out completly covered in petrol.

The barnacle pickers are being accused of not helping, as it is them who are most used to walking on the rocks to get them. It is not true. The president of the barnacle farmers union has declared on 'Ser' Radio, that they were all happy to help from day one, but they asked if the local authority could take care of the safety aspect of the operations. As the rocks are now totally covered in oil and very slippery they need safety ropes and protective harnesses. THEY ARE NOT GOING TO GIVE IT TO THEM because the rainy season has started already, the government doesn’t want to be responsible if any one hurts them selves seriously or die.

We already made a big banner, 12 meters long, demanding "ZONA CATASTROFICA, XA!" and we hanged it in Riazor (football stadium) taking advantage of the Depor-Juve match and all the foreign media there. I watched the recorded match at home and the panoramic shots of the crowd would stop exactly when reaching our banner. Other networks didn’t broadcast a single shot either and I can assure you, you could read it from the whole stadium.

On the 1st of December there was a demonstration in Santiago to ask for "catastrophic zone". ON TV NO ONE TALKS ABOUT IT". If a power popular movement doesn’t grow to support this it will soon be forgotten (even though some foreign papers are claming that this is the worst environmental disaster in the history of Europe)
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People are already immigrating. And in the mean time Fraga goes hunting with Cuina (The leader of the local government and the environmental minister) and here no one is resigning. Their mouths fill up talking about the enviroment, the protection of nature, about Kioto, Rio etc.and then what? And what is worse all they can talk about is efficiency and democracy and what they have done is the most antidemocratic thing ever. THEY HAVE ABANDONED THE PEOPLE. I am so pissed off, so let down and I feel so impotent, that I find it difficult to write this. I can assure you, that one thing is to see on TV and another is to be there, to touch it, to smell it , and look at the black beaches from the sand. Seeing the birds totally covered in crudoil with out being able to move and seeing the fisherman, humble hard working people with a very tough life, CRYING to look at the sea.

The platform "Nunca Mais" is asking for money buy material that the local govt doesn’t provide and get on with the cleaning.

Anonimous volunteer from Galicia.

Useful contacts co ordinating the clean up:

Cabo Prior-Ares. Juan Ignacio Díaz da Silva 981352820.
A Coruña-Malpica. Amadeo Pombo 696416487.
Malpica-Camelle. Manolo Soto T.609229443.
Camelle-Muxía. Rafael Lema 654040655 y 981730036.
Muxía-Cabo da Nasa. Martiño Nercellas 606754515.
Cabo da Nasa-Muros. María García 679828242.
Península do Salnés. Óscar Pérez 986 733 295.
Sur da Ría de Vigo-Esteiro do Miño. Alberto Gil629649390.
Coordinador general del operativo: Xosé Luís Castro (FEG) T. 699219280.