On November 13, 2002, the Prestige oil tankerresponsible for 77,000 tonnes of fuelmade the first distress call to the Salvamento Marítimo, when it was involved in a strong storm near the Galician coast. The ship had a leak which caused a spill of thousands of tons of oil in the sea.
Despite the installation of containment barriers on the beaches, the oil spill began to reach Galicia and 190 kilometers of coastline were impregnated by the oil spillcausing a serious environmental disaster. Cleaning tasks and volunteers They began removing fuel from the beaches, while the ship was towed south.
On November 19, 2002, the Prestige broke in two, sinking 260 kilometers from the Cíes Islands and generating a new oil spill. The strong gusts of wind carried the chapapote towards the Galician estuaries and beaches.
The oil spill from the tanker ended up affecting just under 3,000 kilometers of coastline and contaminated 1,137 beaches. The sinking of the Prestige became the the greatest economic disasterenvironmental and social history of Galicia and Galicians continue to remember it every anniversary.
