SPAIN Illas Cies (Cies Islands) -- 15/12/2002 -- Aerial view of volunteers clean rocks on a polluted stretch of the coastline of the Isle of Monteagudo

SPAIN Illas Cies (Cies Islands) -- 15/12/2002 -- Aerial view of volunteers clean rocks on a polluted stretch of the coastline of the Isle of Monteagudo - part of the Cies Islands - in the Atlantic Islands National Park off the Galician coast. Thousands of volunteers and military personnel are involved in the clean-up operation which could last for six months. Several thousand 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 57,000 tonnes (metric) of fuel oil and while some has been extracted from the wreck, 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 least 20 billion Euros -- Picture © Jon Mitchell / Lightroom Photos