SPAIN Near O Grove -- 15/12/2002 -- Aerial view of a polluted coast near O Grove on the Galician coast. Thousands of volunteers and military personnel are involved in the clean-up operation

SPAIN Near O Grove -- 15/12/2002 -- Aerial view of a polluted coast near O Grove on the Galician coast. Thousands of volunteers and military personnel are involved in the clean-up operation which could last for six months. Thousands of tonnes of heavy fuel oil has contaminated large swathes of the north-western coast of Spain after the tanker Prestige sank in late November 2002. The ship was carrying around 77,000 tonnes of heavy fuel oil and a lot of the oil has leaked into the sea causing a ecological disaster along much of the southern Atlantic coast of Europe. The cost of the disaster is estimated at over 20 billion Euros.