The crippled tanker Prestige, transporting 77.000 metric tons (24.000
million gallons) of fuel-oil, was sailing six days under the spanish authorities guiadance after being informed of its
situation at
130 miles from Fisterra with a 40 degrees inclination by a
water inlet in the hull. Instead of carrying the broken ship to a safe
seaport in order to transfer the fuel, they decided to move it away in the middle
of a storm following an erratical
route wich extended the spillage, aggravating its
deterioration and causing the sinking of the tanker 3.5 km depth.

The ecological disaster
According to the official reports 14.000 tons remains to be extracted. This means a total sum of 63.000 tons of fuel wich is
still arriving to more than 1.000 kilometers of a extraordinary
landscape, flora and fauna richness with a lot of very high value
ecological places like natural reserves or protected spaces with
species in extinction danger.


Every ton of this spill -clasified as number 2, 6 or M-100 by
the french, russian or anglosaxon terminologies respectively- contains
350 grammes of a carcinogenic compound formed by heavy metals joined
to poli-cyclical aromatic hidrocarbons (PAH). The very high PAH persistance
in the trophic chain lies in its low vulnerability under bacterium
action. The bioregeneration tecniques are not effective in this case
because the bio-degradation potencial of this compound becomes only a
15%.

Cetaceans and seabirds was the first victims of the fuel-oil
spill, wich also caused the death of the german hermit who lived in
Camelhe. The estatistical estimations with the reference of the Exxon
Valdez (Alaska,1984: 38.800 oil tons) calculates between 300.000 and 650.000
the number of death seabirds. This numbers can be a measure of the
effects in the the very dense population of fish, crustacean an shellfish among
others wich generates the 84% of the galician enterprises
invoicing. More than 1.500.000 people, wich represents
the 50% of the total galician population, lives in the
coast depending of this economical activity.


Considering the very strong relationship of this population with
the affected ecosystems and bearing in mind the low biodegradation
potencial of this compound once inside the trophic
chain, is neccesary to talk about the worst ecological
dissaster in history because oil spills (five spills in the last
ten years). Its effects will
remain along the next years with seriously consecuences
in human health.
The social reponse

Polycommander, Urquiola, Erkowit, Andros Patria, Casón, Aegean
Sea... Prestige. In an inexplicable manner the governement of the world's most affected
country by spills did not have the preventive procedures to avoid a
certainly previsible dissaster. The total lack of antipolluting
resources forced the sailors and shellfishers to fight head-to-head with the oil slick
from their own traditional boats and inventing artesanal tools
to take up the fuel using only their own hands. The lack of
coordination between both the statal and regional
administrations was supplied by the seafarer auto-organization who managed the spontaneus movilitation of
thousands of people comming to help in the seaboard
cleanwork. While the population fights against the
consecutive oil slicks, the authorities denied accepting
the magnitude of the spill an its effects in the
parliament and the
mass media.



This situation caused the unanimous response of the galician
society joining the biggest demonstration of its history, where the
Never Again Manifesto was readed a couple of
times under the rain and the umbrellas the 1 of december in 2002 at
Santiago de Compostela, capital city of the galician
country. This demonstration was called by a civic platform who
received the inmediate membership of thousands of people and hundreds
of asociations and agrupations inside an outside the
country. This collective demands the

starting of the mechanisms wich prevents this kind of catastrophes
again, as the provision of the neccesary resources to
repair the serious economical, social and environmental
effects caused by the disaster at sea.
The presentation of a lawsuit against the technical and political
responsibles identified a lot of relevant top officials of the spanish Partido Popular
party. This political organization intensified the
criminalization campaign against the civic platform using the democratic
institutions wich progresively turns
in censorship
and repression
practices while the arrival of fuel to the
coastline was silenced in the mass media. This irresponsible and
antidemocratic attitude was responded with the reading
of the Dignity Manifesto in the front of near a
million people who joined the demonstration at Madrid, capital city of
the spanish state the 23 of
february of 2003.



Six months after the sinking, the tanks still were a pollution focus
wich caused the denegation of the blue flags because the presence of
fuel waste at the turistical beaches. While the
governement maintained the prohibition to shellfishing
due the high toxicity of the analised samples, the
spanish Partido Popular party blocked the callings at

the galician parliament and the spanish congress to
stablish the facts, to point the way to face the
consecuences and avoid the repetition of this kind of
tragedys again. This was the reason why the 14 of june
of 2003 happens an international demonstration at
Brussels where the Alliance Manifesto was readed
denouncing that facts and asking for the creation of a investigation
comission at the european Parliament, which at last was officialy proposed.

One year later
In the front of the galician coastline travels the 10% of the
world shipping traffic and the 70% of the european petroleum. The
technical breakdown of the Prestige becomes in a catastrophe only
owing to the lack of coordination and the lack of prevision of the
spanish authorities, who doesn't have available
an emergencies plan or antipollution resources in the
world's most affected country by oil spills.

One year later, the single-shield oil tankers and the flags of
convenience are still sailing the Fisterra maritime corridor with
total impunity.
One year later, the technical and political responsibles remain
in its position.
One year later, we still have no Emergencie Plans that considers
the actuation protocols wich allows the neutralization of different eventuallities.
One year later, the only Plan we have is an electoral promise
with no economical fundations.

One year later, we still have no watchfull forces or rescue
operations like enough powered tugs or shelter seaports for accidents.
One year later, we have no resources like antipolluting ships,
retaining and absortion barriers, skimmers or store centers
distributed along the coasline providing filtered masks,
cleaning material, markers or floodlightings to allow the fast
deployment of speciallized cleaning teams.


One year later, the Prestige disaster could be repeated in
identical circumstances.

Therefore, a year later Galiza was one more time the humanity that shouts: NEVER AGAIN!