LA CORUNA, Spain, Nov. 23 (UPI) -- A chilly sunshine brightened the rugged Atlantic coast along northwest Spain on Saturday, as government workers and volunteers continued to shovel sludgy black oil off Galicia's beaches.
Four days after the Prestige oil tanker splintered and sank, experts remain at odds over how much oil seeped from the vessel and where it is heading.
Spanish officials maintain that just 10,000 to 11,000 tons of the Prestige's cargo has dribbled into the sea, since the tanker first ran into trouble during a violent storm on Nov. 13.
But several environmental groups argue that twice as much oil is being tossed about in the rough Atlantic waters off Spain, or has washed up on Galicia's craggy shores.
"We think around 20,000 tons have been spilled," said Juan Lopez de Iralde, executive director for Greenpeace Spain. "We've assessed that based on the number of deposits leaked from the site -- which equal at least six -- and the oil going to different areas."
On Friday, the Portuguese government said it had detected yet another oil slick near the sunken Prestige, located about 130 miles off the Spanish coast. The Spanish government said it would send a submarine to check whether the Liberian tanker is still leaking, Spanish news agencies reported.
But that hasn't changed the task at hand for Xavier Rodriguez, one of dozens of government workers scooping up the sticky black oil from a beach near Caion, a fishing village about 15 miles south from the Galician port city of La Coruna.
"This is going take weeks of work," said Rodriguez, who called the washed-up oil "this s--t from the sea." Prestige's cargo of heavy, or residual, oil might be less toxic than the crude oil dumped on Alaska's shores in 1989 by the Exxon Valdez, but it is more sticky and viscous.
The Prestige sinking is hardly the first tragedy to hit these rocky, pine-studded shores, known locally as the "Coast of Death." Residents here point to another major oil spill from the Aegean Sea tanker, near La Coruna, a decade ago.
Spanish and French press reports this week said the two tankers are owned by the same Greek shipping family.
But local residents are quick to note the Prestige spill is the worst in recent memory, hitting a region heavily dependent on the $330 million a year generated by the local fishing industry.
"This is a problem that affects everybody," said Jose Maria, a burly 45-year-old nurse, as he sat at La Plaza coffee shop in Caion. "Not just the fisherman. If the fisherman don't work, they don't buy goods, so shops are affected. And we can't eat fish, so we are affected."
The Galician coast is known for its rich harvests of sardines, squid, mussels and goose barnacle, a Christmas-time delicacy. But the government has slapped a fishing ban on hundreds of miles ofs of coastal waters affected by the spill and barred sales of all fish from the region until further notice.
Hundreds of birds and other wildlife have also been affected by the tarry detritus. The slick has coincided with the winter migratory schedule of northern European birds, who often stop on the Galician coast to feed and rest, before moving on south.
Raul Garcia of World Wildlife Fund in Spain estimated that about 7,000 birds had already died.
The spreading slicks have also reached a unique marine park, known as the Cies Islands, roughly 80 miles south of La Coruna. The oil could have a severe impact on the delicate ecosystem of the two small, granite islands, joined together by a small sandy beach, Garcia said.
"This area is now impossible to protect," he said. "It's in open sea, and vulnerable to waves of six meters or more."
Whether the Prestige's undamaged tanks can withstand the tremendous pressure and icy temperatures 2 miles down on the Atlantic floor, whether its oil will congeal there into a more or less inert mass or seep back to the surface for years, whether the incident will blow over with time or be a nagging ecological disaster remains anyone's guess.
Portuguese and French officials are keeping a wary eye on the spreading spills, fearful the oil may hit their coasts.
In France, where the fallout of another deadly tanker spill in 1999 is still a painful memory, Environment Minister Roselyne Bachelot said the government was "ready for the worst."
