Costa de la Luz
Greenpeace add banner to the New Flame boat in the Strait of Gibraltar
By h.b.
Feb 21, 2008 - 12:41 PM

Greenpeace activists have today placed a banner on the wreck of the ‘New Flame’ cargo vessel which remains partially sunken off Europe Point in Gibraltar. The banner reads ‘vertido diplomático’ – Diplomatic Dumping.

The ‘New Flame’ carrying a cargo of scrap metal was in collision with a tanker last August 28 and Greenpeace claims that both the Spanish and the Gibraltarian administrations have been inefficient in resolving what they describe as the serious problem of oil pollution in the Cádiz bay. They claim that both Governments have been blaming each other for six months and spending the time arguing over who has jurisdiction of the waters involved, and that since the day of the collision there have been as many as seven leaks of fuel from the vessel.

Greenpeace says that new leaks are still possible and they claim that they have been asking the Spanish Government for the past six months to explain the exact composition of the 42,000 tons of scrap metal the cargo ship was carrying.

Greenpeace says the Strait of Gibraltar is the busiest shipping lane off the Spanish coast with 96,186 boats counted in 2006, of which more than 21,000 were carrying dangerous cargo. With many ships using the area for refuelling, the ecologists say there is a permanent risk of a catastrophe and major pollution incident.