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oil 9 |
the politics
of irresponsibility After much searching by abelard.org, news has been found of Captain Scapegoat, the Master of the oil tanker Prestige in the form of an interview he gave to the London Lloyd’s List in June 2003. This man, who has spent 32 years of his 44 year marine career as a tanker Master, is living in a first-floor apartment in Barcelona, reporting every morning without fail to a local police station while he awaits his ‘trial’—“he cannot even have a lie-in on a weekend”, let alone visit his family in Greece.
And with what has Captain Mangouras been charged?
Note that this detainment is criticised cuttingly by a report, On improving safety at sea in response to the Prestige accident, presented to the European Parliament by Belgian MEP Dirk Sterckx.:
Throughout, this report is scathing in its censure of Spain’s actions, though this is often cloaked in over-polite comments and subtle sarcasm. Returning to the charges made against Captain Mangouras, regarding the first charge (disobeying orders), which concerns the Spanish intention to start the ship‘s engines,
And the engines were started, despite that they would “subject[...] the damaged vessel to added vibrations and, with an average speed of about 5 or 6 knots, increased the pounding from the rough seas.” Regarding the second charge (causing environmental pollution), the pollution would not have happened to the degree it has, making a disaster worse even than those from either the Exxon Valdez and the Amoco Cadiz, if the Prestige had been allowed to enter sheltered coastal waters, rather than being hauled far out into deep and storm-swept seas. Again, from the European Parliamentary report:
The European Parliamentary report further comments,
Yet still the Spanish government makes a scapegoat of Captain Mangouras, in an attempt to divert attention from their clear responsibility and culpability. From the European Parliamentary report:
Lastly:
the web address for this article is |
31.08.2003
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the politics of
irresponsibility
The Spanish government’s original line was that 17,000 tonnes of
the Prestige’s 77,000 tonne cargo of heavy crude oil had
spilt. Note that the Repsol who will remove the oil from the sunken wreck is the same state-owned Repsol who has now discovered that there is much less oil to remove. No doubt they will still charge the same enormous amount (€280 million or $560.6 million) for removing what oil (allegedly) does now remain. But when was the rest (25,000 tonnes) spilt? Was it during the towing, when the Prestige broke and sank, by oozing gently from the score of leaks, or has it perhaps come out in a sudden rush more recently? Will we ever know? And further, let us not forget that the sunk halves are currently leaking a mere “trickle of 20 litres a day”. There is no certainty that the amount leaking is or will remain so‘low’. All comments from, or associated with, the Spanish government have to be taken with great caution. There are suggestions in some quarters that “most of the blame [for the break-up and sinking of the Prestige, and the consequent oil spillage] lies with the ship's inspectors who allowed the Prestige to sail.” However, by referring back to previous news items at this site, the reader may see that the “most rigorous inspection firm”, who was responsible for inspecting and classifying the Prestige as seaworthy (or not), had done their job with inspections and that the Prestige was not a “floating dustbin”, despite that criticism having been levied. For this particular marine catastrophe, the real blame lies with irresponsibility of the Spanish government who
Any other suggestion is mere diversion from apportioning responsibility where it patently belongs—the Spanish government and its officers. the web address for this article is |
updated 31.08.2003 |
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At
last, the world is waking up to Spain's role in the Prestige disaster An independent Gallician Foundation, created in 1966, has just published a 652-page report [in Spanish] on “The impact of the Prestige”. [The link provided is to the sales page for this document, priced 22.88 €.]
The report includes the following points:
The second report comes from Austrian Greenpeace [PDF] and again is highly critical of the Spanish government’s actions and their attempts to ‘whitewash’ the real and grim problems.
How many more reports criticising the Spanish government will be published by independent organisations before pan-governmental bodies such as the European Union, or even the United Nations, bring the irresponsible Spanish government to book? the web address for this article is |
22.08.2003 Related material the politics of irresponsibility (July 2003) the politics of irresponsibility (June 2003) the politics of irresponsibility (May 2003) the politics of irresponsibility (April 2003) the politics of irresponsibility (March 2003) |
Damning report on Spanish handling of the Prestige disaster—First known report in English The Spanish Merchant Navy Association [item in Spanish] has published a statement after their conference on the wreck of the Prestige and its consequences.
The Prestige accident became an ecological, economic and social catastrophe because of a set of organisational deficiencies and a series of hasty and unfortunate decisions.
It is significant that the Spanish Government has not made public the results of the Commission investigating the Prestige accident. This official version must be published so that necessary measures are adopted, in order to avoid repeating this type of accident. The measures that the government of the Popular Party have adopted are temporary plasters to hide their inability, or unwillingness, to apply a less conciliatory policy with the large oil companies and flags of convenience. The generous distribution of money coming from citizens’ taxes will never be sufficient to repair to the damage done by a catastrophe like that of the Prestige. the web address for this article is |
14.08.2003 |
Spanish mess Blue flag status has been withdrawn from northern Spanish beaches, less than two months after it was awarded, after oil from the Prestige continues to wash up on the Spanish coast. The Spanish authorities have not been able to clean up the continuing mess fast enough and the Blue Pavilion organisation, who awards the Blue Flags, rumbled that Spanish beach cosmetics does not mean good quality beaches. The linked article has many details about the current situation on the north Spanish coastline: the state of tourism, fishing, beaches and its ecology. It will be unhappy news for northern Spain’s tourist industry. In Spain as a whole, “tourism provides 12 percent of Spain's GDP and beach tourism is responsible for the bulk of the country's tourism revenues.” If the authorities at the Port of La Coruna [article in Spanish] had done their work and removed a huge rock partially obstructing their harbour entrance, the Prestige would easily have been able to take refuge from the severe storm and so not been left at high risk in dangerous seas. This rock is also implicated in two previous wrecks at the Port: the Urquiola in 1972 and the Aegean Sea in 1992. Found by a diver in 1967, the rock reduces to 11.20 metres the low-tide depth of the North channel of La Coruna Port. (A 42,000 tonne tanker such as the Prestige extends down over 12 metres below its waterline.) Thirty five years later, the State has started works to dynamite and remove the obstruction. And meanwhile, still not a whisper about Captain Scapegoat (68 year-old Captain Astopolos Mangouras), the man who tried to prevent this ecological and economic disaster, but has ended up held to ransom by the polluter – the Spanish authorities. 02.08.2003 those clean, safe beaches—in pictures and words
Related material the web address for this article is |
09.08.2003 |
our beaches are so clean and so safe Spain: While the Port Captains [government functionaries] for various coastal towns in the northern Spanish provinces claim to have seen “no activity”, beaches along the Coast of Coruna have received “oil” or “pancakes of oil”. Of course, this is all promptly ‘cleaned up’, at least visibly, but that does not account for oil left buried in the sand or mixed into the water. Meanwhile, “light brown, dispersed iridescent patches” can be seen floating near the site of the wreck. This shows that the broken Prestige continues to leak fuel oil, despite the patching up done by the French submarine, the Nautile. Remember that the Spanish government has no intention of doing anything with the many thousands of tonnes of fuel oil, still two and a half miles down in the broken halves of the Prestige, until next spring, they say. France: Along the Aquitaine coast, lumps of oil are washed in with most tides, and are cleaned up by mechanical sieves and white-suited teams, giving ‘clean’ beaches by the afternoon. The oil lumps that float into the marine lakes are still oozing iridescent liquid, but most people appear to care not and continue to bathe in the sea and marine lakes. 20 .07.2003
legal battles as Spain attempts to dodge
its responsibility In response, ABS is suing the Spanish and Basque governments for “recovery for any claims made against ABS for damages arising from the Prestige casualty”, claiming that
And
Further,
So, now Spain has run whining to the European Council, part of the European Union, and demanded [petitioned] that the EC “no longer 'recognise' ABS as an approved classification society”. As ABS points out, there is no credible basis for the Spanish petition under the relevant European Council Directive. Moreover,
Also,
And
Now, will the EC and EU be willing to stand up to Spain’s hysterical and dishonest bullying? Or will it be a matter of “honour amongst thieves” in the European Union cabal? — Related material the web address for this article is |
updated Related material the politics of irresponsibility (June 2003) the politics of irresponsibility (May 2003) the politics of irresponsibility (April 2003) the politics of irresponsibility (March 2003) |
the politics of irresponsibilitythe Prestige, June 2003 23.06.2003 don’t
be alarmed—just enjoy the oil-splattered beaches Meanwhile,
back in the real world ...
However, according to the authorities, the beaches are being rapidly cleared of the visible pollution. Of course, for the Spanish politicians it is a matter of, “what the eye doesn’t see, we hope that the voters will soon forget”. 17.06.2003 because the wind is from the north-west With the wind currently blowing from the north-west, it is Spain, not France who is receiving the latest batch of ‘disappearing’ oil. This is fresh fuel oil from the Prestige, that still escapes from the leaking holds at a rate of 3 to 4 tonnes a day (or 0.7 tonnes a day according to the Spanish authorities). Since last Wednesday, eight Cantabrian fishing boats have collected 9 tonnes of ‘hydrocarbons’, while 40 tonnes of oil and sand has been collected from 28 Cantabrian beaches. Meanwhile, in Asturias, as well as the 100 state workers, 332 others have been allocated to cleaning the new wave of Prestige oil, with a further 120 manning 60 water-jet sprays. Back in Galicia, eight pairs of divers with three suction pumps are continuing to clean the sea bottom off Figueras, in the Atlantic Islands National Park. Other inlets are currently clean. In France, small lumps of fresh fuel oil are washing up on beaches and into marine lakes. Fresh? Yes, mini-slicks of iridescent oil swill off the lumps, neither evaporated away nor yet lost into the seawater.
15.06.2003
Who says the beaches are clean? The Tarnosians admit that the beaches are not clean and that fresh oil from the Prestige (rather than aged oil which, apparently, is safer according to ‘experts’) is swilling around in the seas and washing up on the ‘clean’ beaches. [Both articles in French.] Note that only one beach in Les Landes, and none in Pyrenees Atlantiques, have received a Blue Flag award this year to assert the high quality of the beaches concerned. However, despite bearing the brunt of the Prestige catastrophe, many beaches on the northern Spanish coast have been awarded Blue Flags. (The incongruity between numbers of French and Spanish beaches awarded is because French councils have refused to present their beaches for assessment. Their reason: the assessment system is based on the previous year’s inspection and so can be misleading.) See also this item on European ratings for bathing waters. At Tarnos, surfers testify that there are little lumps of oil in the sea, as well as the fresh oil on the beaches. A local councilor, who is a chemist, explained at a public meeting that the oil coming from the Prestige is classified as a chemical product that is carcinogenic and/or toxic and/or dangerous to reproduction. All beaches in the departments of Gironde and Charente-Maritime are now open, but six beaches in Les Landes (including the two at Tarnos) are still ‘closed’. Pyrenees Atlantiques beaches are all open except for those closed “for reasons nothing to do with the Prestige pollution”. The official French line [article in French] is that the oil has lost part of its toxicity and so is only a “big problem” to those who are allergic to it. According to the French inspecting authorities, “As long as the local town hall officials do not see or smell anything during inspections, the beaches and sea are clean and so safe.” However, this only applies to supervised beaches, between the lifeguards’ flags. The water and beaches may look clean—the choice is yours.
In Spain, a contract has been signed for 1070 people to continue “ordinary
cleaning” of the Galician beaches from July to September. But what
about the ‘extraordinary’ cleaning of oil beneath the sand,
oil on the rocks, oil beneath the sea? Poisonous fuel oil to stay another year How much is still in the holds of the Prestige? Brussels says that it is 37,500 tonnes, while for Repsol (the Spanish state oil company contracted to recover the oil) it is “over 35,000 tonnes”. >
In Brussels [article in Spanish], the
Fishing Commission is demanding immediate emptying of the Prestige’s
oil, rather starting next May as proposed by the Spanish, because the
oil represents an ecological threat. Fishing will continue to be affected
by the marine contamination as long as the fuel is on the sea bottom. The university at Huelva in Spain [article in Spanish] is conducting a simulation in order to determine the current viscosity of the oil still in the Prestige’s holds. This information will aid Repsol when it actually starts recovering the sunken oil. Repsol [article in Spanish] intends to make a test run in the Mediterranean near Marseilles, in August, using their proposed method for removing the Prestige oil. If this test is satisfactory, then a first test will be made on the Prestige itself. The actual recovery of oil from the wreck is scheduled to start in May 2004, safely after the Spanish presidential elections. the
politics of irresponsibility 07.06.2003 A New Zealand newspaper announced yesterday that the job of emptying fuel oil from two parts of the sunken Prestige “has to be completed” by the start of the October storms. Back in polluted Spain, the day before, a local newspaper knows differently [article in Spanish]. The State-owned oil company, Repsol, has no intention of actually attempting the tricky task of emptying the holds of the Prestige before Spring, 2004; long after José Maria Aznar, Spain’s current Prime Minister, has retired from office. That the hulk still leaks about three-quarters of a tonne of oil each day, that it lies in a seismically unstable zone, that it continues to decay and will eventually implode, is of no account to the Spanish central and local governments. And let us all try to forget the awkward assertion the authorities had made: emptying operations (not just experiments on what to do) would start in early summer 2003. With summer bookings right down, ‘experts’ are wheeled out to try and convince the public that the seaside, and even the oil, is now safe. Meanwhile, unsuspecting holiday-makers are still being coaxed to come and paddle, and swim, in uncertain waters. Beaches have never looked cleaner after the enormous clean-up operations, and they are pleasant enough, but the oil is there and it is very likely that you will encounter the muck buried in the sand, or washed up on the beach. Whether you wish to brave the risks must be entirely your own decision. Here is an animation [captions in Spanish] of what happened when the Prestige sank, and the various options for extracting the remaining oil. Related material the web address for this article is |
updated Related material the politics of irresponsibility (May 2003) the politics of irresponsibility (April 2003) the politics of irresponsibility (March 2003) |
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