MADRID , Spain – The sunken Prestige tanker is spewing out 125 tons (33,000 gallons) a day and could continue to do so for the next three years, the head of a Spanish scientific commission said Tuesday.
The tanker is leaking oil from nine cracks in the bow and five in the stern, Emilio Lora Tamayo told reporters. He said that at that rate it could continue oozing until March of 2006.
The commission, formed Monday and headed by Lora Tamayo, is now studying what to do with the situation. He said for the moment there were two options and both were difficult.
“We can seal the cracks, not all of them, of course. Or we can try to pump out the remaining oil,” he said.
Lora Tamayo said the French research submarine which is studying the wreck would dive down again Wednesday.
The leaks, together with wind changes and stormy weather across Spain, increased fears that another wave of slicks may hit the coast later this week, further threatening one of the world’s richest fishing zones.
The 26-year-old, single-hulled Prestige broke in two and sank on Nov. 19, six days after it ruptured in a storm and started leaking. The ship spilled an estimated 20,000 tons (5.3 million gallons) of fuel oil out of a cargo of 77,000 tons (20.5 million gallons).
Spain had previously insisted that the oil still in the tanker would solidify because of the near-freezing temperatures on the sea floor, some 2.2 miles from the surface.
Lora Tamayo said there was nothing to indicate the ship would develop more leaks. Experts estimate the oil leaking form the wreck takes about 24 hours to reach the surface.
Earlier, Deputy Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said there was a slick measuring 35 miles by 11 miles on the surface where the tanker sank 152 miles out to sea.
Portuguese authorities say the slick holds 30 tons (8,000 gallons).
Rajoy said there were at least two other major slicks some 50 miles off the Spanish coast which anti-pollution boats were working to vacuum up. The ships, backed by fishermen in smaller boats, have scooped up 12,600 tons (3.4 million gallons) so far, authorities estimate.
On land, some 7,000 volunteers and soldiers were trying to clean up the near 200 beaches and hundreds of rocky inlets already tarred by the toxic oil.
A ban on fishing and shellfish harvesting all along Spain’s northwestern coast has forced thousands of fishermen to depend on government handouts of 40 euros (US$40) a day.
France and Portugal are also on alert should the slicks reach their coasts.
In a state television interview Monday, Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar described the spill as ” Spain ‘s worst ecological catastrophe.” While dismissing opposition and ecology group allegations that the government has mishandled the disaster, he acknowledged there may have been some errors.
“It’s possible that we have made some mistakes, but after realizing that we were wrong, we’ve tried to correct them,” he said.
Aznar also fought off criticism that the decision to tow the ship out to sea was the worst solution. No port would have agreed to accept a boat that was threatening to spill millions of gallons of fuel, he said.
He pledged that new European Union directives, spearheaded by Spain , would ensure that such an accident will “never happen again,” and that no aging, single-hulled vessels carrying dangerous cargo will be allowed into Spain.
By Ciaran Giles, (AP)
