In general one fortunately has to look back several years to find examples of oil disasters caused by major tankers, accidents that have polluted both the ocean and coasts. The latest incident that most people likely remember was when the Prestige quite simply broke in half off the coast of Galicia, Spain, in November 2002, and 63,000 tons of the ship's 77,000 ton cargo leaked into the sea. A big part of this oil wound up on the coasts of northern Spain, and the accident resulted in a protracted legal aftermath, in addition to the coastal damages.