Tarnished Tankers

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ONE BIG OIL SPILL COULD BE A FLUKE. TWO SPILLS, and suspicion rises. Three in a row looks like a dangerous trend. So in the wake of the disastrous trio of tanker accidents off the coasts of Spain, Scotland and Sumatra, E.C. ministers convened an emergency meeting in Brussels. The officials proposed policies to ensure that companies spilling oil pay for the damage, and also agreed on the need to declare environmentally sensitive areas off limits to tankers.

British Transport Secretary John MacGregor called the prevalence of substandard vessels an "international disgrace" -- a statement corroborated, oddly enough, by the oil industry. A report by Shell Petroleum indicated that 20% of the world's oil fleet was suitable only for "the scrapyard." At the moment, the world's seaways are becoming scrap-yards. Even as politicians debated what to do, the Maersk Navigator, a Danish supertanker that collided with a ship near Sumatra two weeks ago, was still burning -- and still spewing oil.