“Following on from initial reports on the oil spill from the accident at the dry dock in Campamento, the ESG, together with colleagues from the Bay Bucket Brigade in Spain, are outraged at the manner in which this incident has been met with little national media coverage in Spain and what has emerged, been considerably played down.

The facts are obvious, an accident occurred in broad daylight in calm weather conditions and a considerable, not catastrophic, amount of oil has once again entered the bay waters. The amount of oil was seriously underestimated by the Spanish authorities and their media-while all along the coast of the Bay the arrival of oil has told a very different story-

While the cause for the oil pollution on this occasion was a ship colliding into a stationary object, which in itself begs a lot of questions, the fact of the matter remains that oil continues to enter the bay ecosystems from the maritime activity and is causing chronic, environmental damage.

Environmental groups from both sides of the border want to know why this accident happened. We would like to know what reparations are being done to safeguard the fragile ecosystem in the area and call for the results of the accident report to be made public to ensure that further accidents of this nature are not repeated.

We need to see preventative action, not only develop strong response cross border mechanisms, important though these are.”