Black Tide

Spain's Chernybol: A FoC tanker's last moments - a maritime disaster which caused $80 million worth of environmental damage, polluted 183 beaches, destroyed the livelihoods of more than 21,500 fishermen, killed & maimed around 15,000 seabirds

World shipping imploded in November. As the Bahamas flagged tanker Prestige snapped in two off the Spanish coast and was sucked under swirling black mountains of water to the ocean floor, flames lit up the oceans off Japan, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong and China. Yet another four ships of shame explode in flames before bleeding copious amounts fuel oil into our oceans. Two had visited Australian shores. All five were flags of convenience. All caused loss of life and injury and all damaged our fragile marine environment to the tune of billions of dollars.

First there was the Liberian flagged ship Hanjin Pennsylvania which exploded off Colombo, Sri Lanka on November 15, killing one crew member, then the Maltese flagged Tasman Sea darkened our oceans with oil after colliding with another vessel off China on November 24, then the Panama flagged LPG tanker Gaz Poem became engulfed in fire near Hong Kong and last but not least the Bahamas flagged Haul Europe, burst into flames after a collision off Tokyo on November 26.

But it was the ageing 44,000-tonne hulk of the Bahamas flagged, Liberian owned, Greek managed and Russian chartered by a Swiss-based commodities trader, Prestige, which made world headlines.

The rusting tanker ran into heavy weather off the northern Spanish coast on November 13 on its way from Gibraltar with 77,000 tons of fuel oil it had loaded in Latvia. With an almighty thunderous bang the hull snapped, haemorrhaging a trial of slick into the ocean. Spanish authorities ordered it outside its territorial waters, banning the vessel from entering any of the country's ports. But the oil had already begun darkening its shores.

Six days later the Prestige snapped in two and sank dramatically under a swarm of news helicopters recording its last moments.

But weeks later oil was still washing ashore and into the deep inlets that form one of Europe's richest fishing banks.

The slick, which the Spanish government estimates has caused $80million worth of environmental damage, has destroyed the livelihoods of more than 4,000 fishermen and countless businesses which depend on summer tourism for a living. Beaches have already been contaminated and an estimated 15,000 seabirds have been killed or covered in oil.

And it's not over. Another 60,000 tonnes of oil still bubbles to the surface from the disintegrating tanks at the bottom of the Atlantic. French mini submarine photogrpahs reveal oil oozing from the cracks in the bow of the ship in its 3.5 kilometre deep ocean grave. And satillite photgraphs show a dark patch of oil in the wreck zone. More than 900 kilometres of the seaboard are affected with at last 21, 500 fishermen out of work 183 beaches polluted.

Clean-up

Along the wrecked Spanish shoreline, volunteers continue to scrape a blanket of oil from beaches.

"Spain's Chernobyl" ñ this is how the Prestige maritime disaster is described. Fairplay shipping magazine reports 3,000 Spanish troops have been ordered into Galicia to combat the 'black tide' after the government held a crisis cabinet meeting. Demonstrations were held against the government over the weekend, with Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior taking part in a floating protest at La Coruna. More than 200,000 demonstrators marched in the North-West city of Santiago de Compostela on December 1 protesting against government mishandling of the disaster.

Around 5,500 tonnes have been pumped from the sea by vessels from Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Norway. But who will compensate the coastal communities for the damage to their economies and their environment?

Court hearings

The Spanish Government was quick to charge the ships master Apostolos Mangouras, the master of the Prestige for causing 'ecological crime' and 'disobeying civil authorities'. He was placed under $6 million bail.

His testimony to a Spanish judge captures the terrifying moment on board as disaster struck -- a deafening explosion as the hull cracked and the ship groaned, listing 25 or 30 degrees.

"The crew were very frightened," Captain Magnouras told the court. "Some of the men started crying."

Once he learned the ship's hull had split open the captain testified he launched a distress call, left the bridge and went down to the deck. Oil was already gushing into the sea from ruptured tanks.

The captain and officers stayed with the ship until its final hours. Helicopters were brought in to rescue the 27 crew when the tanker first started taking on water in rough seas some 50 kilometres off Spain's northwest coast.

UN Protest

THE International Transport Workers' Federation was quick to respond. It has joined forces with Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund in a direct appeal to United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan over tanker safety.

"To put a ship of that age in those waters in winter was madness," the letter states bluntly. "A new global agreement is required, which eliminates the FoC system and ensures that flag states meet their responsibilities.

"The Prestige is just one ship in a string of maritime disasters that strike almost weekly and more often than not kill."

Meanwhile, British union Numast, says it has written to European transport commissioner Loyola de Palacio warning that similar accidents will happen unless action is taken to penalise owners, operators and charterers of unseaworthy ships.

"It pays to run a substandard ship," said Numast deputy general secretary Peter McEwen.

The union argues there is evidence to show that owners can more than halve their operating costs by choosing to operate under flags of convenience.

"This appalling disaster has all the hallmarks of sickening inevitability about it," he said. "Yet another ageing flag of convenience vessel long past its sell-by date polluting our waters."

Obsolete

European authorities had not checked the Prestige since 1999, but Lloyds List reports Exxon Mobil had twice rejected offers to charter the vessel, describing the tanker as "totally obsolete". The German newspaper Berliner Zeitung said a spokeswoman for the company confirmed the ship did not correspond to safety requirements.

Lloyds List Marine Intelligence reported that the chartering company, Crown Resources, has a record of taking on vessels already on their deathbeds.

It was all about the bottom line. Choosing the 26-year-old Prestige saved the company around $5,000 a day. But the cost to the environment, fishing, recreation and tourism ran into the millions and is still rising.

Fuelling the outrage is the discovery that Petrian Shipbrokers fixed both the Prestige and the Erika, which made headlines when it went down off France two years back.

Blacklist

In response to the disaster the European Commission has published a blacklist of 66 ships deemed too dangerous for European waters.

The commission said the 66 ships on its blacklist had been detained on several occasions in European ports for failing to comply with safety rules.

"Words are not enough: it is necessary to act and apply the maritime safety measures in full," said European Transport Commissioner Loyala de Palacio.

The first test of the clampdown came when the Spanish and Portuguese navies ordered a 17 year old tanker, the Moskovsky Festival, carrying 25,000 metric tons of fuel oil out to sea due to safety concerns.

In a separate incident, a cargo ship slipped out of Gibraltar under cover of darkness to escape an inspection.

Agence France Press reports that the Canyon - flying the St Vincent and Grenadines flag - was suspected of having defective bilge pumps and a faulty radar.

The port authority ordered the ship to be boarded and the captain to surrender the ship's papers.

But the Canyon took on fuel and steamed out of Gibraltar bay under cover of night, with lights switched off and without her papers, according to a port spokesperson.

Police launches gave chase when the vessel refused to stop

Ports have been alerted and asked to refuse the vessel entry.

Australian Response

In Australia the federal government announced that one in every two single hulled oil tankers visting Australian ports will be subject to increased inspections and fines for oil spills will rise to $480 million.

"In Europe they are banning them outright," said National Secretary Paddy Crumlin. "Here they are not even going to the trouble to check every one."