-  High sensitivity of the population regarding maritime accidents resulting in loss of life and or heavy damages to the environment based on the frequency of accidents in the area well known as the "coast of death" in the past;

3 Incidents within the area

- Over 90 contraventions are reported per year. This means fully identified contravening vessels. The number of observed contraventions is nearly double, and most of them dealing with vessels using the inshore traffic zone instead of the appropriate traffic lanes, thus reducing the effectiveness of TSS adopted by IMO;

- In the Spanish statistics of maritime accidents, a total of 85 accidents were recorded in the last year with ~4 collisions and 8 groundings which affected 223 persons (injured or dead);

- Tremendous disaster took place in the past. Some examples of the heaviest pollution in the area are as follows:

(i) Urquiola grounding resulted in more than 80,000 tons of crude oil spillage;

(ii) Aegean Sea amounts to 20,000 tons of spillage; and

(iii) The grounding of the Casson required the evacuation of thousands of people from the nearby cities.

With this background the authorities do believe that the Finisterre area deserves an effective accident prevention programme which would be enhanced by the establishment of a mandatory reporting system. Thus there will be significant improvements to the Finisterre VTS and to maritime safety and the protection of the environment in the North of Spain.

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