II. Vocabulary Practice
1. Match the words from column A and column B similar in their meaning.
-
A
B
out of control
a) responsible
spot
b) split up
contaminate
c) supply
in charge
d) disabled
break up
e) reaction
response
f) discover
feed
g) follow
track
h) pollute
2. Form collocations with the word measures and translate them into Russian:
clean-up, response, safety, preventive, protective, effective, emergency, immediate, environmental.
3. Fill in the blanks with the proper preposition.
… Wednesday, 13th of November 2002, the tanker Prestige sent a distress call offshore the region … Cape Finisterre.
The tanker was heading … Singapore … Gibraltar.
The ship became … … control.
The Spanish organization … charge … the sea rescue and pollution control tried to take … tow the oil tanker.
… the 19th … 9 am, the vessel broke … two … about 130 nautical miles … the Spanish coast.
Aerial data were fed … various slick drift forecast models.
The main slick split … … so many smaller ones … account … the wind and current regimes.
III. Speech Practice
1. Work in pairs. Ask questions to the first passage from the text to get the missing information. The answers can be found in the text.
On November … , the single-hulled oil tanker Prestige, flying the Bahamas flag, sent a distress call offshore the region of Cape Finisterre (Galicia, Spain). The tanker carrying … was heading to … . The vessel … in heavy seas and strong wind and so requested … . … crew members were evacuated by helicopter while … stayed aboard. As …, the ship became out of control. An aerial observation spotted … at sea.
2. Look at the map and describe the ship's manoeuvres as well as the chain of events.
Figure
3. Answer the questions.
Why is this spill considered to be unique?
What is weathering? Explain.
What made it possible to track the slick?
What is the forecast model? How can it be applied?
4. Speak about the accident. What measures can help to avoid similar accidents?
Text 6. Prestige oil disaster
I. Read the text.
Make sure you understand the words below:
to burst |
to break |
aid |
help, assistance |
response |
answer |
amount |
quantity |
prevalent |
common |
spot |
area |
to frequent |
to visit |
to endanger |
to put in danger |
On November 13th 2002, the Liberian owned tanker, the Prestige, ran into trouble in heavy weather off the coast of Galicia. The 240 metre single-hulled ship had burst one of its tanks and was starting to leak oil. The ship's Greek captain called the Spanish authorities for aid but instead of the expected tow-in he was told to steer away from the coast and head North West.
Similar responses were sent out from Spanish and Portuguese coastal authorities who wanted to see the foundering tanker kept away from their shores. This ship got into serious trouble on the sixth day of drifting when a 40 ft section of the hull came away; she split in two that afternoon spilling a huge amount of oil into the Atlantic 250 km from the coast of Galicia. The Prestige sank later that day in over 3,000 metres of water starting Spain's worst environmental disaster.
The decision to take the ship away from the coast was not a good one; by this time 5000 tons of fuel were already spilt and the strong westerly winds that are prevalent in the region at this time of year were already pushing a huge slick of oil towards the Galician coastline. Galicia is known as an extremely rich fishing ground, the area is also home to coral, sharks and thousands of sea birds.
The clean up operation was huge with a lot of volunteers. Thousands of tons of oil were removed from beaches and aid was provided for hundreds of birds covered in the Prestige's noxious cargo. It was six months until the fishing fleets dropped their nets again and locals still claim that old fishing spots they frequented before the disaster are now completely barren.
In the wake of the incident many have called for the ban of single-hulled tankers, the IMO (International Maritime Organisation) called for their phasing out to be brought forward and the European Commission did exactly that by moving the date forward from 2015 to 2005.
The effects of the disaster not only affected the Galician coast – oil was washed up in Portugal, on the beaches of Normandy and even England's south coast. Such is the quantity of oil contained in tankers that a spill can have catastrophic effects – with thousands of single hulled tankers still in operation there are fears that we're endangering our environment unnecessarily.