Prestige Tanker Disaster

At the end of 2002, in the teeth of an Atlantic storm, the oil tanker Prestige crashed into rocks on the northern coast of Spain. The prestige began to flounder while the Spanish, Portuguese and French governments argued over who would take the leaking ship.

Finally she was dragged out to sea and left to sink off the Costa da Morte, where she spews up huge slicks of toxic oil every day and is expected to leak her cargo for at least the next ten years.

Oil now poisons the coasts of Portugal, Spain and France with thousands of fishermen unable to work and the tourist industry devastated.

First published as a double page spread in the Guardian, as well as in Black and White photography and in Super Foto Pratica.