The western coast of Galicia in north-west spain has a rugged granite shoreline with cliffs with its very clear waters and sandy beaches, it is both important for fisheries and for tourism. On 18 november 2002 the single-hulled oil tanker the prestinge split into two during rough seas off the coast of Galicia spilling its cargo of heavy fuel oil onto the shore. The ship was carrying a total of 77000 tonnes of this heavily polluting form of petroleum oil was leaking at a rate of some 120000 litres per day and soon formed a slick 50 km long and 18 km wide. Both the Spanish and Portuguese authorities had refused to let the ship, when it first got into difficultie, come into a safe harbor and as a result it sank into deep water about 800 km away from the mainland. Some predicted that this situation would stop further damage as the fuel oil would solidify in the cold of the deep waters and no longer leak; this was not to be the case and new polluting oil may continue to leak out until 2006.