Spain hopes to plug more leaks in sunken tanker
Date: 18-Dec-02
Country: SPAIN
The French submarine Nautile last week covered one of the cracks in the tanker that caused Spain's worst ecological disaster. The trick appears to be working, so further patches are planned, Deputy Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said.
The Prestige, loaded with 77,000 tonnes of fuel oil, sprung a leak in its hull on November 13 in stormy waters off the northwest coast of Spain, then broke in two and sank six days later after being tugged out to sea.
The disaster continues to foul Spain's northwestern coast, killing wildlife and crippling the fishing industry that is vital to the economy of the Galicia region.
A fleet of cleanup vessels has scooped 13,000 tonnes of the oil from the sea, while 7,000 military personnel and thousands more volunteers have scraped even more off nearly 200 beaches over hundreds of kms (miles) of coastline.
The wreck leaks an estimated 120 tonnes of fuel oil each day where it sits 3.5 km (two miles) beneath the surface some 130 nautical miles (240 km) off the Spanish coast.
An estimated 56,000 tonnes of fuel went down with the ship.
Even if the solution was only temporary, experts suggest further patches would stop the wreckage from spilling until a permanent solution could be found, Rajoy said.
"Observations immediately after the operation indicate that the flow was stopped. We'll need to confirm the effectiveness of the operation in future dives," Rajoy told a parliamentary commission.
The Nautile covered a 35-cm (14-inch) hole with an aluminium disk and "the intent is to cover another 10 cracks," Rajoy said.
