SPAIN: Strong westerly winds and the rising tide yesterday were pushing oil leaked from the sunken tanker Prestige toward the vital shellfish estuaries of Spain's northwestern Galician region, Spanish government officials said.
Other regions around the area are fearful of being hit by the oil as over 100 tonnes are leaking from the sunken tanker each day.
"There is a lot of concern about the Rias Baixas area," Deputy Prime Minister Mr Mariano Rajoy said in Madrid.
The Rias Baixas region, in southern Galicia, is made up of a series of rias, deep estuaries or fjords, cut into the coastline, and is a leading centre of shellfish production and a regional economic powerhouse.
Despite strong swells, specialised anti-pollution vessels were attempting to suck up drifts of fuel oil in the open seas off the coasts of Galicia, Calabria, the Spanish Basque region and Asturias, according to spokesman Mr David Sanchez.
But the vessels were struggling to pump up the oil slicks, which have become diluted with sea water and have broken into many parts, Mr Sanchez said.
One slick, currently about 200 kilometres offshore, measuring more than 1,000 square kilometres and estimated to contain 31 tonnes of oil, was being driven onshore despite the efforts of a Norwegian ship, Boa Siw, to contain it.
Several smaller slicks were floating closer to the southern Galician coast, also heavily diluted and proving difficult to pump, he said.
The Rias Baixas area escaped the first wave of oil pollution, which hit the Galician coast further to the north, but the Cies Islands, in a nearby national park, have now been badly damaged.
Mr Rajoy singled out the estuaries of Vigo, Pontevedra and Arousa, as at especially high risk.
As fuel oil threatened once again to wash ashore, local fishermen who, reinforced by thousands of Spanish troops, have been mopping up small oil slicks along the Spanish coast, were preparing to push the oil away from their shores.
Meanwhile, a Dutch salvage company, Smit International, said it would propose a plan within two days to seal the sunken tanker and pump up the remainder of its fuel oil cargo, which is leaking nearly 125 tonnes a day.
The French mini-submarine Nautile, which has made five dives to the tanker, was to leave Vigo yesterday afternoon to try to determine the speed at which oil is seeping out of the wreck and whether the gashes can be plugged.
The Prestige broke in two and sank on November 19th, 270 kilometres off Spain's northwest coast. In an interview on Monday, Prime Minister Mr Jose Maria Aznar said the spill was "Spain's worst ecological catastrophe". He rejected criticism that the decision to tow the ship out to sea was the worst solution.