Peril on the high seas....

Dear Sir,
I regret that you, the Editor, are becoming like so many others in tabloid journalism. Using pre-conceived ideas about shipping that are all based on media made fantasies, rather than checking before reporting. I feel the following facts should be brought to the attention of your readers to offset some of the bias of your comments: The last oil spill off the coast of Spain, La Coruña, some 8 years ago was the tanker “Aegean Sea”, and she was of double hull construction and of EU flag. Shipping is customer driven, like so many other industries, on cost. The oil was the residues left after refining which can be used in power stations to generate electricity cheaply, and in order to be cheap, the cheapest transport is found. If no single hull tankers are available, then an ageing double hull will be the next choice with similar results. Of the hundreds of million tons of oil that is transported by sea annually, one accidental pollution every 2 or 3 years although regrettable, is on par with airline safety, (oil miles to air miles), the latter is considered acceptable. A good point that should be well noted is that with oil tanker pollution accidents in the last 15 years no human lives have been lost.