Prestige, Chronicle of a Catastrophe, 20 Years Later
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Museu Marítim de Barcelona Avinguda de les Drassanes, 08001 Barcelona
Image courtesy of Museu Maritim
On the November 13, 2002, the oil tanker Prestige, carrying 77,000 tonnes of heavy fuel oil, was sailing 28 miles (51.8 km) off the coast of Finisterre in a storm and fierce winds, when it was hit by a wave which opened a 15 m breach on the starboard (right) side of the hull. Over the next few days, the storm widened the crack, causing fuel oil to spill out and reach the coast, in the biggest ecological disaster ever to occur in Spain.
In the days that followed, the accident mobilized more than 300,000 people and generated an unprecedented volunteer movement in Spain. On the 20th anniversary of the catastrophe, the MMB reminds us of this environmental disaster at a time when the sea is particularly vulnerable due to climate change and the impact of human over exploitation.
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A replica of Ictíneo I sits in the courtyard of the Museu Marítim de Barcelona. Photo by Vicente Zambrano González courtesy of Ajuntament de Barcelona (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).