Prestige not the only disaster
Oil spills, stretched crews and crowded sea lanes
By G. Dunkel
Oil from the Prestige, the tanker that sank off the
northwest coast of Spain in late November, reached the French
coast before Jan. 1. France is preparing a major and sustained
effort to keep its shoreline clean.
Thousands of tons of oil have already fouled the beaches of
Galicia in northwest Spain, destroying fishing and scenic
attractions. More is to be expected because the Prestige is
still spewing 125 tons of oil a day.
Some 90,000 jobs, most in fishing and processing, have
already been lost in Galicia. France is still evaluating its
losses, which are going to be heavy.
The Prestige was carrying 77,000 tons of oil from Latvia to
Singapore, about twice as much as the Exxon Valdez was carrying
when it went down. To clean up the Valdez spill cost $ 2.1
billion and took 10,000 workers, 1,000 boats and 100 planes and
helicopters over a year. Hundreds of thousands of sea birds,
bald eagles and otters were killed as well as up to 22 killer
whales.
Some Alaska beaches are still oily.
It is going to be harder to deal with the Prestige, because
it sank in 12,000 feet of water, which makes it very difficult
to cap or move.
European newspapers are filled with calls to force shipping
companies to transport heavy oils of the kind that the Prestige
was carrying in double-hulled ships, which are safer. This will
be required in the U.S. after 2005.
This is likely to be fiercely resisted by the maritime
industry.
Over $100 billion worth of oil a day is transported between
producers and consumers, according to The Times of London, and
7,000 tankers are currently in operation. Lloyd's Marine
Intelligence estimates that 52 percent of tankers weighing more
than 10,000 tons are single-hulled. Losing this much transport
capacity is going to boost the cost of oil and/or cut the
profits of the shippers.
If the European Union and North America prohibit the use of
single hulls and enforce this ban, it is likely that such ships
will be transferred to the trade between poorer countries. The
ensuing spills will be less of a public relations problem for
the imperialist governments, but will still cause grave
environmental damage.
Besides the mistakes of the Spanish government, there is
another problem lying in the background of the Prestige--a
26-year-old Japanese-built ship owned by a company registered
in Liberia, managed by a Greek firm, registered in the Bahamas,
certified by a U.S. organization, and chartered by a
Swiss-based Russian trading company
Shipping lane accidents are becoming more numerous. On Dec.
15 a Norwegian car carrier, the Tricolor, sank in the English
Channel after colliding with the Kariba, a container ship from
the Baham as. Two days later the German-owned Nicola collided
with the submerged Tricolor. Two weeks later, the
Turkish-registered Vicky hit the same wreck.
The British maritime union NUMAST, commenting on the second
accident, pointed out that cost-cutting by ship owners and poor
crew training had made disasters a matter of "when," rather
than "if."
Its spokesperson said, "We have to look at how ship owners
are sacrificing competent crews for cheap crews. Crew costs
take up a vast part of running costs, and owners are constantly
looking at ways to cut back costs." NUMAST also pointed out
that many ships are under-crewed, making mistakes caused by
fatigue more common.
Washington's preparations for a major war in the Middle East
are also affecting shipping. With the Navy turning to merchant
vessels to move vast amounts of war materiel and oil to the
Gulf region and to Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, U.S. firms
are recommissioning laid-up ships.
As the flow of materiel and oil grows, ships like the
Prestige may not be directly involved, but the owners of these
old ships will find it profitable to keep them running as newer
ships are involved in supplying the U.S. war machine. The more
that old, single-hulled ships are run, the greater the chance
for Prestige-type catastrophes.
Reprinted from the Jan. 16, 2003, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyrighted
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