Oil spills
Volunteers cleaning up after the Prestige oil spill, Spain.
© WWF-Canon / Michel GUNTHER
© WWF-Canon / Michel GUNTHER
The Prestige oil spill, November 2002
- 64,000 tonnes of oil spilled
- over 3,000km of the Spanish coastline polluted
- some 300,000 seabirds killed
- livelihoods of 30,000 people in the fishery and shellfish sectors directly affected
- €8 billion cost for clean up, compensation, and lost revenue over the next decade
- the fifth oil spill on the Galician coast in 30 years
- the sunken tanker is now on the Galicia seamount, an important area of marine biodiversity
Images of oil-coated seabirds after oil spills are a stark reminder of the massive damage that ship wrecks can do.
Such oil spills have huge and immediate economic, social, and environmental impacts. Local people lose their livelihoods as fisheries and tourism areas are temporarily closed; the clean up costs are enormous; and tens of thousands of marine animals and plants are killed or harmed.And the damage goes on. The chemicals used to break up the oil can be toxic, and it's impossible to remove all the spilled oil. Even after an area has been cleaned up, it can take a decade or more to fully recover.
There's also the problem of the oil that goes down with the ship, which can contaminate the seabed and marine organisms.
This oil can also resurface. In 2001, a cyclone off the island of Yap in Micronesia disturbed the oil tanker USS Mississinewa, which was sunk during World War II. For two months, thousands of litres of oil and gasoline leaked out of the rusted ship wreck onto the beaches of the atoll, stopping the 700 islanders from fishing. There are hundreds of other shipwrecked tankers around the world.
Find out what WWF is doing about oil spills!
