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The Effects of the Prestige Oil Spill

Like all oil spill incidents, the Prestige disaster in November 2002 has had severe consequences for the animals, humans and economies involved. The Prestige was a Bahamian-owned oil tanker that listed in the waters near to Galicia in Spain; the ship later split while being towed by Spanish authorities. In total, the Prestige is reputed to have leaked some 13,800 tons of oil into the surrounding environment, according to the International Oil Compensation Funds website.

Health of Volunteers
- After the Prestige disaster, many people volunteered to assist in clean-up operations, and some suffered health problems as a result. Most of these volunteers were sailors who headed out to help collect fuel from the sea off the Galician coast. These sailors have suffered from a range of health issues, including oxidative stress, respiratory problems and lung inflammation, as reported by the El Norte de Castilla website.
Marine Life
- The oil that leaked from the Prestige as a result of the disaster has had a profound effect on the marine environment it came into contact with. The oil caused toxic chemicals to enter the marine environment. These chemicals have caused cancer in marine wildlife like fish, and poisoned life forms such as plankton and crustaceans.
Birds
- The Prestige disaster had severe consequences for the many bird species that inhabit the Galician coastline. According to the Environment News Service website, some 300,000 sea birds died as a result of the oil leaked by the Prestige. The disaster affected so many birds because it occurred during a migratory period, which meant that the local bird population was bigger than average at that time. Bird species affected included Atlantic puffins, guillemots, kittiwakes and cormorants.
Economic Costs
- The Prestige incident had large-scale consequences for the local economy. Local fisheries rely on the area for their livelihoods, and were thus adversely affected. According to the Environmental News Service website, fishermen's organizations in the area claimed an 80 percent decrease in their typical catches after the incident. Tourism in the region was also shaken by the spill; the coastline became a less attractive area to visit due to the oil itself and the negative publicity that the incident generated. This led to a loss in profits for local people who work in the tourism sector. The coastline also needed to be thoroughly cleaned up, which was expensive. Overall, the economic damage caused by the Prestige disaster is estimated at around $5 billion by the Environmental News Service website.

Nature