Damage from Spanish oil spill much more serious

Pollution from the Prestige oil tanker spill is far worse and more widespread than the authorities have admitted, and marine scientists warned on Thursday that fish and shellfish from Spain may be poisonous for up to 10 years.

A study by the environment group World Wildlife Fund (WWF), published to coincide with the first anniversary of the tanker's sinking, contains stinging criticism of the Spanish government for prematurely opening the Galician fisheries and failing to clean up oil lying in shallow waters.

"Personally I would not eat Spanish shellfish, and as a precaution I would advise anyone traveling there to avoid doing so," Simon Walmsley, WWF's marine pollution expert said.

"After the Braer disaster in Shetland in 1993, parts of the shellfish industry were closed for seven years. The pollution in Spain is far worse than in the Shetlands, but the fishery opened after two months," he said.

"There is no doubt in my mind that should not have happened," he said.

The report says that toxic pollutants from the oil were rapidly absorbed by shellfish and crabs, and this could lead to potentially serious consequences for both the crustaceans and for people eating them.

The report says that between 5,000 and 10,000 tonnes of oil are still floating in slicks off the Spanish, French and English coasts; others put the figure at 24,000 tonnes.

A large slick from Prestige was seen recently in the Irish Box, an 80km-long prime fishing area off the Irish coast, created to protect fish stocks.

Investigations at the wreck of the Prestige -- a single-hulled tanker which sank after splitting in two during a storm off the northwest coast of Spain on Nov. 19 last year -- show that it spilled 64,000 tonnes of oil, 60 percent more than was originally estimated.

About 13,000 tonnes remain in the wreck.

More than 3,000km of coastline, from the Isle of Wight to the Canary Islands, has been polluted.

Despite the Spanish government's claim that the area is recovering well, villagers say that catches of inshore fish and harvests of shellfish are down by 80 percent.

A large amount of oil did not reach the beaches but sank to the beds of shallow coastal waters, affecting the habitat of sea bass, octopus, crabs and shrimp, which are valued commercially, and raising concern about a serious risk of contamination by toxic pollutants such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH).

Unpublished data collected by the University of La Coruna for fishermen's groups show that mussels, barnacles and sea urchins have a high level of PAH. Fish and octopuses were also shown to have significant PAH levels.