SPAIN: The Spanish government yesterday admitted for the first time that fuel oil was still leaking from the sunken tanker Prestige ahead of a parliamentary scolding for its handling of the disaster.
Deputy Prime Minister Mr Mariano Rajoy told a news conference that a French mini-submarine sent to examine the wreck had seen four streams of semi-solidified fuel oil seeping upwards through cracks in the bow section.
Until yesterday Madrid had consistently denied Portuguese and French reports that oil was escaping from the vessel, which split in two and sank off northwestern Spain with around 60,000 tonnes of toxic, heavy fuel aboard over two weeks ago.
Mr Rajoy insisted no new oil slick had been seen in recent days in the vicinity of the wreck, which lies some 3,500 metres under water, and around 270 kilometres off the Galician coast. But an Envisat satellite photograph, taken on Monday and published in the Spanish press on Thursday, showed a dark patch of oil in the shipwreck zone.
Mr Rajoy said that so far only the bow section of the 26-year-old single-hulled vessel had been inspected, adding that technical experts were studying the "significance" of its leaking cracks. He did not say how much of the Prestige's pollutant cargo was in the bow section or whether the leaks were continuing.
Between 10,000 and 20,000 tonnes of fuel oil have so far leaked from the tanker. Much of that oil is now washing up in Galicia and neighbouring parts of the Spanish coast. Galicia has seen its vital fishing, shellfish and tourist industries paralysed by the pollution.
The right-wing government was expected yesterday to face a dressing down from the Socialist opposition over its handling of the disaster. The debate has been prefaced by angry protests from locals and criticism from leading Spanish marine scientists.
Thousands of Galician fishermen staged a third sea-borne demonstration yesterday, while a specialised German civilian protection team left the area, complaining that the authorities had failed to equip clean-up crews adequately and "minimised" the seriousness of the disaster.
On Thursday, patches of oil sludge appeared on the coast east of Galicia in Cantabria and the Basque region, which borders France. Mr Rajoy said north-east winds were pushing the slicks out to sea and southwards, towards Portugal, where the authorities began installing anti-pollution sea barriers.
Meanwhile the powerful Union of Greek Shipbuilders said it hoped the disaster caused by the Prestige - a Greek-operated vessel - would not trigger new legislation against their industry.
Instead of banning certain types of vessels and punishing transporters "the immediate need \ for ports of refuge and plans for coastal countries to deal with this kind of case", it said.