[Fair use for education and research purpose only]

Title: Oil Slick Brings Easter Woe to French Beaches

Story Filed: Monday, April 24, 2000 6:39 AM EST

LE BAULE, France (Reuters) - More oil from the sunken tanker Erika washed ashore on a handful of France's Atlantic seaboard beaches over the Easter holiday weekend, bringing fresh misery to the beleaguered tourism industry.

Local authorities have launched an international advertising drive to convince people that France's north-western Atlantic coast was clean following the Erika disaster last December.

But as if on cue, patches of oil have smeared the coast again over the past 48 hours, forcing the closure of two popular tourist beaches on the first major holiday weekend of the year.

``We are getting very tired with all this. Our businesses are starting to suffer, fewer foreign tourists are coming and the arrival of more oil on Easter Day was a real blow,'' said Yves Metaireau, the mayor of La Baule in the Loire-Atlantique region.

The Maltese-registered Erika split in two and sank in December off the Brittany coast, coating some 250 miles of shoreline with thick, glucose fuel oil.

Hundreds of volunteers and soldiers battled to clear up the beaches in time for the tourist season, but up to 15,000 tons of oil is still believed to be trapped in the Erika's holds.

TotalFina, which had chartered the tanker, last week signed a contract with two companies to pump out the remaining oil, however the difficult operation is not expected to be finished before September.

Local communities have complained about delays in starting the pumping operation and fear that leaks from the Erika might threaten the crucial summer season.

``We have already suffered enough from this foul oil slick. It's appalling, appalling...this pollution is a terrible act of violence,'' Jean-Yves Bannet, leader of the Atlantic Belle-Ile community, told RTL radio Monday.

Copyright ) 2000 Reuters Limited. http://library.northernlight.com/HA20000424550000012.html?cb=200&dx=2006&sc=0#doc

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-- (Dee360Degree@aol.com), April 24, 2000