Skip navigation.

Activists bring oil disaster to European ministers

Greenpeace activists sample spilled crude oil from the sunken Prestige tanker. Enlarge Image

Leaked oil blackening Spain's coastline

A ruptured tanker carrying 77,000 tons of fuel oil, almost twice the amount that spilled from the Exxon Valdez, has split in two and sunk off of Spain's coast.

A Greenpeace activist inspects the spilled crude oil from the sunken Prestige tanker. Enlarge Image

Stop the next oil disaster

If it had been within your power to prevent the Prestige oil spill, would you have taken a moment to do so? We can't undo the damage of the Prestige, but we may be able to stop the next disastrous spill.

Greenpeace activists stop the single-hulled oil tanker 'Byzantio' in the port of Tallinn, Estonia, preventing it from leaving with its cargo of 50,000 tonnes of oil. Enlarge Image

Byzantio: rustbucket oil tanker

In the seaside town of Tallinn, Estonia, 20 Greenpeace activists prevented the next oil disaster from leaving port until port authorities arrested them and let the ship go. Chained to the mooring lines of the rusting, 26-year old Maltese-flagged, Greek-owned tanker Byzantio were some of the same activists who last week were cleaning up after the Prestige oil spill in Spain. They would rather have stopped this oil from leaving port than be cleaning it up on another beach.

Greenpeace action against the single-hulled oil tanker 'Byzantio' on its way from Tallin with its cargo of 50,000 tonnes of oil. Greenpeace inflatables attemp to stop and enter the ship displayinga banner reading HAZARD Enlarge Image

Rust bucket oil tanker continues hazardous journey

The tanker left Estonia under the cover of darkness on Friday, but not before 20 Greenpeace activists braved the cold attempting to stop the Byzantio. The Byzantio is chartered by the same company that contracted the ill-fated oil tanker Prestige that sank off the north-western coast of Spain earlier this month. But this new hazard to the seas will not be allowed to pass quietly. More Greenpeace activists intercepted the ship as it passed the straits between Denmark and Germany.

Activists deliever oil waste from the Prestige oil spill to Crown Resources, the owner of the oil that covered Spain's northern coast. Enlarge Image

Byzantio tries to hide

Why would the owners of a 210 metre oil tanker try to elude activists, mislead journalists and try to sneak into the port of Rotterdam? Do they have something to hide?

Greenpeace activists halt movement, by climbing up the mooring ropes of the single-hulled oil tanker Byzantioin the port of Rotterdam, The Netherlands yesterday Enlarge Image

Prestige leaking, but activists protesting another rustbucket are stopped

The first images of the sunken oil tanker off Spain are out. Black oil is oozing out of the Prestige contrary to the Spanish government's assurance that it would freeze up and solidify at the bottom of the ocean. If it continues the Prestige could coat Spanish beaches for years to come.

The Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior sails in the Galician port town of La Coruna this morning in protest against the weak response to the oil disaster from authorities, and demanding that stricter measures are put in place. Enlarge Image

Rainbow Warrior leads protest flotilla in Spain

More than 150 local fishing boats and yachts joined Greenpeace's flagship the Rainbow Warrior In a protest flotilla off the Galacian port town of Coruña. Another 2000 people lined the harbour. What do we all want? An guarantee that catastrophes such as the Prestige oil tanker disaster will never happen again.

Greenpeace activists display, at the site of the Little Mermaid in Copenhagen, a banner reading Oil Hazard EU Clean up your act, referring to the infamous Prestige oil tanker disaster in Spain. Enlarge Image

Another tanker carrying oil in the Baltic runs aground

We said it was only a matter of time, and it seems we were right. Another tanker carrying 55,000 tonnes of fuel oil ran aground in the Lithuanian port of Klaipeda overnight. There are conflicting reports whether the vessel is leaking oil but authorities will attempt to tow it into port. Much further south, off the coast of Spain, the Prestige, which broke up and sank a month ago, continues to leak oil, as much as 125 tonnes every day.

A oil cleanup volunteer holds a Comorant covered in oil from the sunken Prestige oil tanker on the coast of Galicia, Spain. Enlarge Image

Prestige: one year on

The Prestige oil tanker sank on November 13th, 2002. But this Thursday marks not the one year anniversary of an accident, but year one of a decade-long disaster. Despite this, criminally little has been done to prevent the recurrence of a similar catastrophe.

Close up of the oil still present 15 years after the original spill. Dr. Rick Steiner, Marine Biologist, University of Alaska, examines oil left from the Exxon Valdez oil spill 15 years later, at Rua Cove. Enlarge Image

Exxon Valdez disaster- 15 years of lies

It is fifteen years since the devastating Exxon Valdez oil spill, which saw 11 million gallons of oil pouring into a pristine wilderness area in Prince William Sound, Alaska. US oil giant ExxonMobil should come clean about the true state of the site of the spill as new research shows that the Sound is still suffering from adverse effects of the massive oil pollution.

Go to your national site

World websites

GREENPEACE EMAIL

Sign up for international email updates
SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Related news stories

Related campaigns

Latest Update

Lates Update: It's not enough! The European Union failed to protect the marine environment. While the EU agreed to ban single hulled vessels transporting heavy fuel from its ports, it is up to each EU member state to decide when the ban takes effect. Stronger measures must be put in place immediately to include a ban on single hull vessels transporting ALL hazardous cargo, and exclude them from ecologically sensitive marine areas. The whole system of marine transport needs to be changed so that the needs of the environment are put before those of the shipping industry.more>