Sailing the Prestige out to sea. An independent analysis

Authors

  • Antonio García-Olivares Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM-CSIC)
  • José Luis de Pablos CIEMAT
  • Rafael Madrigal Maritime Engineering Laboratory (LIM) and Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3989/scimar.2011.75n3533

Keywords:

oil spill, response planning, Prestige, operational oceanography, deep sea, Atlantic Ocean

Abstract


The sinking of the supertanker Prestige off the coast of Spain in November 2002 was one of the most devastating oil spills ever worldwide. During any crisis most of the decisions have to be taken with limited information and they can benefit greatly from a rational methodology based on the available information. The main mechanisms involved in oil spill impacts are reviewed and we propose a decision tree based only on scientific criteria and data that are expected to be available in the first moments of an oil spill crisis. In the Prestige crisis, one of the decisions taken was to sail the Prestige out to sea. This paper makes an independent analysis of that decision to illustrate the methodology proposed, which may help decision making in future emergency situations.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Carracedo, P., S. Torres-López, M. Barreiro, P. Montero., C. F. Balseiro, E. Penabad, P. C. Leitao, V. Pérez-Muñuzuri. - 2006. Improvement of pollutant drift forecast system applied to the Prestige oil spills in Galicia Coast (NW of Spain): Development of an operational system. Mar. Pollut. Bull., 53: 350-360. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2005.11.014 PMid:16376949

Cavaye, N. and G. Waibl. - 2008. The Development of a Risk Assessment Model to Compare Oil Spill Risk For Single and Double Hulled FPSOs. Proceedings of the 2008 International Oil Spill Conference, pp. 725-734.

CEDRE (Centre de Documentation, de Recherche et d´Expérimentations sur les Pollutions Accidentelles des Eaux). - 2002a. Les leçons techniques de l´Erika et autres accidents. Actes du colloque, Brest. Cedre. www.cedre.fr

CEDRE. - 2002b. Accidents. Prestige. www.cedre.fr

Daniel, P., P. Josse, P. Dandin, J.-M. Lefevre, G. Lery, F. Cabioch and V. Gouriou. - 2004. Forecasting the Prestige Oil Spills. In: Proceedings of the Interspill 2004 conference, Trondheim, Norway.

Elliott, A.J. - 1986. Shear diffusion, the spread of oil in the surface layers of the North Sea. Dtsch. Hydrogr. Z., 39: 113-137. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF02408134

Etkin, D.S. - 1999. Estimating Cleanup Costs For Oil Spills. In: Proceedings of the 1999 International Oil Spill Conference, pp. 35-39.

Etkin, D.S. - 2000. Worldwide analysis of oil spill cleanup cost factors. Proceedings of the 23rd Arctic and Marine Oilspill Program Technical Seminar: 161-174.

EUROGOOS 2011. A definition and overview of Operational Oceanography can be found at: http://www.eurogoos.org/

Ferrer, L., A. Fontí¡n, J. Mader, G. Chust, M. Gonzí¡lez, V. Valencia, A. Uriarte and M.B. Collins. - 2009. Low-salinity plumes in the oceanic region of the Basque Country. Cont. Shelf. Res. 29(8): 970-984. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.csr.2008.12.014

Gonzí¡lez, M., A. Uriarte, R. Pozo and M. Collins. - 2006. The Prestige crisis: Operational oceanography applied to oil recovery, by the Basque fishing fleet. Mar. Pollut. Bull., 53: 369-374. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2005.02.046 PMid:16769415

Irwin, R.J. (ed.). - 1997. Fuel Oil. In: Environmental Contaminants Encyclopedia. National Park Service, Fort Collins, Colorado, US.

Lenting, V. and C. Pratt C. - 2000. The New Zealand marine oil spill risk assessment 1998. In: New Zealand Petroleum Conference Proceedings, Auckland, New Zealand, 19-22 March 2000.

Loureiro, M.L., A. Ribasa, E. López and E. Ojea. - 2006. Estimated costs and admissible claims linked to the Prestige oil spill. Ecolog. Econ., 59: 48-63. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2005.10.001

Marcos, M.J., A. Agüero, A. García-Olivares, B.D. Haupt and J.L. De Pablos. - 2004. Assessment of the behaviour of oil in the tanks of the "Prestige" in the Atlantic deep sea. Sci. Mar., 68: 307-315.

Martí Ezpeleta, A., E. García Martínez and A. Miragaya Veras. - 1998. Rachas Mí¡ximas y Temporales de Viento en Galicia. Lurralde Investigación y Espacio, 21: 262-280.

Monnier, I. - 1994. The cost of oil spills after tanker incidents. Det Norske Veritas Research, Report Nº 94-2024. Hovik, Norway.

Montero, P., J. Blanco, J.M. Cabanas, J. Maneiro, Y. Pazos, A. Moroño, C.F. Balseiro, P. Carracedo, B. Gómez, E. Penabad, V. Perez-Muñuzuri, F. Braunschweig, R. Fernades, P.C. Leitao and R. Neves. - 2003. Oil Spill Monitoring, Forecasting on the Prestige-Nassau accident. In: Proceedings 26th Arctic Marine Oil Spill Program (AMOP) Technical Seminar, 2: 1013-1029. Environment Canada, Ottawa, Canada.

Okubo, A. and S.A. Levin. - 2001. Diffusion and ecological problems. Springer.

Ruiz-Villarreal, M., C. Gonzí¡lez-Pola, G. Diaz del Rio, A. Lavin, P. Otero S. Piedracoba and J.M. Cabanas. - 2006. Oceanographic conditions in North and Northwest Iberia and their influence on the Prestige oil spill. Mar. Pollut. Bull., 53: 220-238. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2006.03.011 PMid:16698046

Serret, P., X. Alvarez-Delgado, A. Bode and 419 other scientists from 32 universities and 6 research institutions. - 2003. Spain´s Earth Scientists and the Oil Spill. Science, 299: 511. http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.299.5606.511b

Sotillo, M.G., E. Alvarez Fanjul, S. Castanedo, A.J. Abascal, J. Menendez, M. Emelianov, R. Olivella, E. García-Ladona, M. Ruiz-Villarreal, J. Conde, M. Gómez, P. Conde, A.D. Gutierrez and R. Medina. - 2008. Towards an operational system for oil-spill forecast over Spanish waters: Initial developments and implementation test. Mar. Pollut. Bull., 56: 686-703. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2007.12.021 PMid:18321533

Stolzenbach, K.D., O.S. Madsen, E.E. Adams, A.M. Pollack and C.K. Cooper. - 1977. A review and evaluation of basic techniques for predicting the behavior of surface oil slicks. MIT Report No. MITSG 77-8. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA.

Wene, J. - 2005. European and International Regulatory Initiatives Due to the Erika and Prestige Incidents. MLAANZ J., 19: 56-73.

White, I.C. and F.C. Molloy. - 2003. Factors that determine the cost of oil spills. In: International Oil Spill Conference 2003 ID#83. The International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation Limited, London.

Wirtz, K.W., N. Baumberger, S. Adam and X. Liu. - 2007. Oil spill impact minimization under uncertainty: Evaluating contingency simulations of the Prestige accident. Ecolog. Econ., 61: 417-428. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2006.03.013

Downloads

Published

2011-09-30

How to Cite

1.
García-Olivares A, de Pablos JL, Madrigal R. Sailing the Prestige out to sea. An independent analysis. Sci. mar. [Internet]. 2011Sep.30 [cited 2024Mar.29];75(3):533-48. Available from: https://scientiamarina.revistas.csic.es/index.php/scientiamarina/article/view/1276

Issue

Section

Articles