Shipwreck of the Prestige: Mercator Ocean maps

Spanish version

On the 13th November 2002 the oil tanker, Prestige, suffered a breakdown off the coast of Cape Finisterre (Spain). On the 19th November it sank off the coast of Galicia to a depth of 3500 metres, with from 50 to 60,000 tonnes of heavy fuel oil in its tanks. This was to be the third black tide in European waters in three years, following that of the Erika in 1999 and the Baltic Carrier in 2001, with extensive ecological damage to the marine and coastal ecosystems. The damage to come is just as fearsome: four weeks after the accident, fuel was leaking out of many gaps in the hull, to the extent of about 125 tonnes per day. Gaps have now been nearly closed by the Ifremer deep-sea submarine, the Nautile. The pollution may thus last for many months and affect long stretches of the Atlantic coastline. In this context, a 3D study and forecast of the ocean state (temperature, currents) may help to monitor the pollution and facilitate protective measures. In other words knowledge of the currents at all depths might prove to be critical for determining where the fuel is likely to emerge and foul the coasts. This is even truer in that the shipwreck zone is in the Portuguese current which is fairly turbulent at all depths.

Map showing mean currents for December 2002.
see the description of the zone as seen by Mercator

Mercator Ocean provides forecast maps of temperature and currents to several organisations (Cedre, Météo France, Shom, Ifremer) all of whom take part in the Ministerial crisis-solving team.
Each Wednesday, Mercator publishes forecast maps for the next 15 days produced by its new high resolution model (~6 km of meshgrid), Psy2. At the same time statistics on output from the Psy1 prototype (a low resolution model which has been operational since January 2001) further our understanding of the ocean dynamics of the shipwreck area (see maps opposite).

The information in these pages comes from recent, innovative, operational oceanography systems. Such information on the thermodynamic state of the ocean, with a 3D description, both in real time and for forecasts, was not available only 3 years ago, when the Erika drama occurred!

Mercator Ocean issued its first bulletin in January 2001, produced by its first system (Psy1) describing the Atlantic ocean with a mesh size of 30km. After two years of successful demonstrations, Mercator Ocean is now ready to implement a new system (Psy2) which describes European waters (Atlantic and Mediterranean) with a very small meshgrid of 5-7 km. Due to the invaluable information in Mercator's analyses and forecasts (there are no comparable real-time systems at the moment), they have been supplied on request to operational teams at Ifremer, Météo France and Shom (co-ordinated by Cedre), even though the system is still being validated.

Consequently the information is only being made available by Mercator Ocean on an experimental basis.

It is moreover important to note that our system only gives information on the thermodynamic state of the ocean analysed and forecasted by our models: an analysis and predictions of the evolution and extent of the damage caused by the Prestige accident to the environment will require other tools and other specialised expertise from the organisations referred to above. Our work is in no way a substitution for theirs, but it is complementary.

To use these pages or the information in them, link to the following address http://www.mercator.eu.org

Consult:
the daily current forecast maps for the periods:
   - from 12 March to 26 March 2003,
   - from 5 March to 19 March 2003,
   - from 26 February to 12 March 2003,
   - from 19 February to 5 March 2003,
   - from 12 February to 26 February 2003,
   - from 5 February to 19 February 2003,
   - from 29 January to 12 February 2003,
   - from 22 January to 5 February 2003,
   - from 15 to 29 January 2003,
   - from 8 to 22 January 2003,
   - from 18 December 2002 to 1er January 2003,
   - from 11 to 25 December 2002
as well as the description of the zone seen by Mercator

For further information on the shipwreck of the Prestige: