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CNN Saturday Morning News
Latest Developments on Oil Spill off Spain's Coastline
Aired November 23, 2002 - 08:17 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KRIS OSBORN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, off the coast of Spain, an environmental time bomb is lurking on the ocean floor. A sunken tanker is leaking millions of gallons of oil, which is rolling toward the coast like a black cloud. And there are still millions of gallons left in the ship's tanks.
CNN's Al Goodman is live from Ferrol, Spain with more -- hello, Al.
AL GOODMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kris, good morning.
We're on a beach called Doninos (ph). This is the farthest north that our CNN crew has been. It's an example of how this problem is so tricky for the Spanish authorities and also for the people and how it's expanding, now about 400 kilometers or 240 miles of coastline here in northwestern Spain have been affected. And all of it and more remains under threat.
Now, let me step out of the way and show you, there are volunteers on this beach who have come out here. This was a pristine beach until two days ago when part of this oil slick washed up on the beach. Volunteers came out here. They're working with their own boots and gloves. In other parts, people don't even have gloves on, and this is highly toxic fuel oil. And they're trying to clean this up.
Now, they got a little help from Mother Nature last night when waves came in and took out some of this. But just over here to my left, which we can't see in the camera, there's a cove that is blackened, covered with this thick, gooey material.
Now, there was a very tense news conference that just ended with the deputy prime minister of Spain for the first time, Kris, admitting what the Portuguese and the French officials have been saying for a couple of days, that there is a slick detected above the site where this Prestige oil tanker sank on Tuesday.
Officials say most of the oil went down with the ship, about 85 percent of the oil. But the question is whether it was a, what environmentalists call a time bomb waiting to happen, and the question is whether that's going to come up.
Now, this slick could be an indication, according to some officials, that there is leakage coming from that boat. Even if there isn't, there's a lot of other oil floating around off the coast and affecting the beaches -- Kris. OSBORN: You know, Al, as you were talking, we were looking at the very thick oil up against the rocks. Of course, the self-evident concern here is the animals, the fish in the water.
GOODMAN: Absolutely. One of these cleanup workers behind me is a nurse named Ava (ph). She says that just this day, Saturday morning here in Spain, she has found seven birds, including cormorants and other species, many, many birds and wildlife have been affected by this. But this area of northwestern Spain is especially rich in fishing. It's a $300 million U.S. dollar industry -- clams, mussels, barnacles -- and all of that is threatened. And the prices in the fish markets are already rising. We were in one on Friday. The prices are skyrocketing.
So there's a multiple problem here and the Spanish authorities have called in for international aid. There is fresh aid coming in from England, from Germany, from Belgium. They've already got help from the French. And so it's a major effort in this part -- Kris.
OSBORN: Yes, absolutely.
Al Goodman, thank you very much, live from Ferrol, Spain.
Let's hope they can save some of those animals.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired November 23, 2002 - 08:17 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KRIS OSBORN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, off the coast of Spain, an environmental time bomb is lurking on the ocean floor. A sunken tanker is leaking millions of gallons of oil, which is rolling toward the coast like a black cloud. And there are still millions of gallons left in the ship's tanks.
CNN's Al Goodman is live from Ferrol, Spain with more -- hello, Al.
AL GOODMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kris, good morning.
We're on a beach called Doninos (ph). This is the farthest north that our CNN crew has been. It's an example of how this problem is so tricky for the Spanish authorities and also for the people and how it's expanding, now about 400 kilometers or 240 miles of coastline here in northwestern Spain have been affected. And all of it and more remains under threat.
Now, let me step out of the way and show you, there are volunteers on this beach who have come out here. This was a pristine beach until two days ago when part of this oil slick washed up on the beach. Volunteers came out here. They're working with their own boots and gloves. In other parts, people don't even have gloves on, and this is highly toxic fuel oil. And they're trying to clean this up.
Now, they got a little help from Mother Nature last night when waves came in and took out some of this. But just over here to my left, which we can't see in the camera, there's a cove that is blackened, covered with this thick, gooey material.
Now, there was a very tense news conference that just ended with the deputy prime minister of Spain for the first time, Kris, admitting what the Portuguese and the French officials have been saying for a couple of days, that there is a slick detected above the site where this Prestige oil tanker sank on Tuesday.
Officials say most of the oil went down with the ship, about 85 percent of the oil. But the question is whether it was a, what environmentalists call a time bomb waiting to happen, and the question is whether that's going to come up.
Now, this slick could be an indication, according to some officials, that there is leakage coming from that boat. Even if there isn't, there's a lot of other oil floating around off the coast and affecting the beaches -- Kris. OSBORN: You know, Al, as you were talking, we were looking at the very thick oil up against the rocks. Of course, the self-evident concern here is the animals, the fish in the water.
GOODMAN: Absolutely. One of these cleanup workers behind me is a nurse named Ava (ph). She says that just this day, Saturday morning here in Spain, she has found seven birds, including cormorants and other species, many, many birds and wildlife have been affected by this. But this area of northwestern Spain is especially rich in fishing. It's a $300 million U.S. dollar industry -- clams, mussels, barnacles -- and all of that is threatened. And the prices in the fish markets are already rising. We were in one on Friday. The prices are skyrocketing.
So there's a multiple problem here and the Spanish authorities have called in for international aid. There is fresh aid coming in from England, from Germany, from Belgium. They've already got help from the French. And so it's a major effort in this part -- Kris.
OSBORN: Yes, absolutely.
Al Goodman, thank you very much, live from Ferrol, Spain.
Let's hope they can save some of those animals.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
