Feb
5
A volunteer cleans Muxia beach after the sinking of the Prestige. (Photo: GFDL, CC BY-SA 3.0)
Shellfish entrepreneurs revive the ravages caused by the ‘Prestige’
SPAIN
Wednesday, February 06, 2013, 03:40 (GMT + 9)
The heads of Galician shellfish companies assure that the environmental disaster caused by the sinking of Prestige tanker off the coast of Galicia, which occurred in November 2002, caused them a major economic loss.
In the light of the testimony presented by entrepreneurs a new day of trial that evaluates the damage caused by the Prestige takes place — the accident produced a decline in sales in the following months and generated fear among consumers about the state of the product purchased.
According to the then managing director of Industrial Depuradora de Moluscos (Indemosa), Carlos Gonzalez, seafood sales in the last quarter of 2002 fell by 25 per cent, Terra reported.
Isabel Mosteiro, administrative clerk of a treatment company, admitted at trial that sales did not start to “move up” until Easter 2003 because of consumers’ fears that the seafood might be contaminated.
“The effect could be compared to the mad cow” disease summed up Jose Maria Suarez, another witness at the trial.
Likewise, in the second half of this year there were several episodes of red tides, which would explain the drop in sales of seafood native to Galicia.
The International Oil Pollution Compensation Funds (IOPC) ascribes sector economic losses to the effects of red tides.
The trial began on 16 October 2012 and the main defendant is the Greek ship’s captain, Apostolos Mangouras.
Twelve years imprisonment is requested for the defendant for endangering the environment, damage and disobedience.
Two other crew members are charged with those same crimes: Ireneo Maloto, first officer, and Nikolaos Argyropoulos, chief engineer officer.
Jose Luis Lopez-Sors, former Director General of the Merchant Navy is also charged with negligence for the erratic course followed by the boat during six days, which spread the oil spill from Galicia to the French coast.
The insurer London Steam-Ship Owners Mutual Insurance Association Limited and the IOPC are also charged as direct civilian responsible for oil pollution, and as civil secondary responsible, carriers Mare Shipping Inc., Universe Maritime Ltd. and the Spanish State.
By Analia Murias
editorial@fis.com
www.fis.com
Open all references in tabs: [1 – 3]
Comments
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.