The Galician shellfish gatherers are some of the most important in Europe and they also had to stop operations. On top of this, the shellfish and crustaceans act as part of the food chain for a huge variety of other creatures including birds, porpoises and whales, which have had to migrate elsewhere in search of supplies of fish, crustaceans and shellfish. The biggest medium-term problem is knowing just how much more oil is likely to escape from a ship that is now on the ocean floor