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History
13 November 2002
• The Prestige, an oil tanker, was sinking in 2002 caused a large oil spill.
• The spill polluted thousands of kilometres of coastline and more than one thousand beaches on the Spanish and French coast.
• The Prestige was carrying more than 77,000 tons of oil cargo from Latvia to Gibraltar.
• one of its twelve tanks burst during a storm off Galicia, in north western Spain.
• The captain requested that the ship be led toward a port of refuge where it could transfer its cargo to another tanker.
• Instead, Spanish authorities used a Dutch salvage ship to tow the Prestige out to sea, in order to protect ecologically-sensitive coasts.
• However, pressure from local authorities forced the captain to steer the embattled ship away from the coast and head northwest.
• Reportedly after pressure from the French government, the vessel was once again forced to change its course and head southwards into Portuguese waters in order to avoid endangering France's southern coast.
• Fearing for its own shore, the Portuguese authorities promptly ordered its navy to intercept the ailing vessel and prevent it from approaching further.
Galicia or Galiza is an autonomous community of Spain, made up of the provinces of A Coruña, Lugo, Ourense and Pontevedra. It is located in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula. It borders Portugal to the south, the Spanish regions of Castile and León and Asturias to the east, and the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west.
19 November 2002
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