Oil Spill Monitoring and Forecasting on the Prestige - Nassau

On November 13, 2002, the tank ship Prestige-Nassau caused an oil spill off the coast of Galicia (northwest Spain) during a severe storm. The ship travelled first to the north and later southward, while the fuel continued to leak out. The amount of spilled oil at this point was estimated to be about 10,000 tons. The ship split in half and sunk on November 19 at the southern edge of the Galician Bank, 133 nautical miles from the Galician coast and in 3500 m of water, spilling ca 11,000 tons of oil. The oil spill caused extensive damage along the coast of Galicia and the Bay of Biscay. An Office of Nearshore Surveillance was created by the Fisheries Department of the Galician Government (Consellería de Pesca e Asuntos Marítimos, Xunta de Galicia). People were also recruited from the Galician Regional Meteorological Service (MeteoGalicia Consellaría de Medio Ambiente) and the Spanish Institute of Oceanography. The main objectives were the monitoring and the forecasting of the slicks near the Galician coast. On November 30, the main spill arrived at Galicia, damaging most of the coast. The spill’s movement was monitored by overflights and its path was forecast with different models. The combination of surface wind drift and ocean currents shows an agreement with the observations.