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Stop the next oil disaster

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.

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.

Greenpeace activists dress in bird costums with black oil stains to simulate an oil disaster at the door of the EU Headquarters where European Ministers of Transport Telecommunication and Energy are meeting to discuss maritime safety. Enlarge Image

Activists bring oil disaster to European ministers

Over 35 Greenpeace activists reenacted an oil disaster at the doorstep of the European Union headquarters as European ministers are meeting to discuss maritime safety. Volunteers dressed in bird costumes with black 'oil' stains carried signs and banners reading: ACT NOW. Oil ran down the flags of EU member states activists carried. Five barrels of oil waste and residue brought from the Prestige oil disaster were unloaded in front of the building.

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.

Holcim's workers with no proper equipment removing the oil spill caused by a technical fault at their plant in Kefraya, North of Lebanon. Enlarge Image

Cement giant pollutes Lebanese coast

Another oil spill, slick black waters, dead birds, local fishermen's livelihoods ruined. However this spill was not caused by the usual suspects of shady operators running rusting tankers. This spill was cause by the world's biggest cement multinational Holcim based in Switzerland.

Gibraltar authorities detain a Greenpeace inflatable following a Greenpeace protest against the single hulled oil tanker Vemamagna anchored in Algeciras Bay, Gibraltar today. Enlarge Image

Greenpeace boards single-hull tanker in Gibraltar

The cleanup of some 25,000 tonnes of oil from the sunken Prestige oil tanker continues along the coasts of Spain, France and Portugal. But single hull tankers are still a permanent presence in the region. Greenpeace activists boarded the single hull oil tanker Vemamagna in Algeciras Bay, Gibraltar today climbing the mast with banners reading "Oil Hazard" in English and Spanish.

Over one million tonnes of oil were spilled into the world's oceans during the 1990s Enlarge Image

Karachi oil spill devastation

The biggest oil spill in the history of Pakistan is sickening people and destroying wildlife.

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.

Greenpeace campaigner, Melanie Duchin monitoring the environmental impacts of the oil spill resulting from the shipwreck of the Malaysian freighter Selendang. Enlarge Image

Oil spill devastates Alaska... again

Fifteen years after the Exxon Valdez devastated the Alaskan coast, another oil spill is making headlines. Greenpeace is on the scene.

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STOP PRESS Greenpeace activists have occupied the mooring lines of the oil tanker Byzantio in Tallinn, Estonia. The 26-year old, rusting vessel, like the Prestige, flies a flag of convenience and has been described by the French government as a "floating dustbin." The ship is carrying oil for the same company as the Prestige. Like the Prestige, it's scheduled to sail past the French coast. Greenpeace is demanding the Estonian authorities forbid the ship from leaving. You can join in that call by visiting our cybercentre: http://act.greenpeace.org More information coming... stand by for updates.