Spills · grounding

On march 16, 1978, the amoco cadiz ran aground on portsall rocks, three miles off the coast of brittany due…

Amoco Cadiz; Brittany, France · Brittany, France · NOAAORR-6241

issued
1978-03-16 00:00Z
status
cancelled 1978-03-30 00:00Z
self-cancels
1978-03-30 00:00Z
authority
NOAA OR&R
sea
Celtic Sea
position
48.583, -4.717
source
incidentnews · first seen 2026-09-03 15:09Z

Original warning text

Amoco Cadiz; Brittany, France.
Brittany, France.
1. On March 16, 1978, the Amoco Cadiz ran aground on Portsall Rocks, three miles off the coast of Brittany due to failure of the steering mechanism. The vessel had been en route from the Arabian Gulf to Le Havre, France when it encountered stormy weather which contributed to the grounding. The entire cargo of 1,619,048 barrels, spilled into the sea. A slick 18 miles wide and 80 miles long polluted approximately 200 miles of Brittany coastline. Beaches of 76 different Breton communities were oiled. The isolated location of the grounding and rough seas restricted cleanup efforts for the two weeks following the incident. Severe weather resulted in the complete break up of the ship before any oil could be pumped out of the wreck. As mandated in the "Polmar Plan", the French Navy was responsible for all offshore operations while the Civil Safety Service was responsible for shore cleanup [...]
2. THREAT: OIL. COMMODITY: ARABIAN LIGHT CRUDE, IRANIAN LIGHT CRUDE, BUNKER C. MAXIMUM POTENTIAL RELEASE: 68000017 GALLONS. TAGS: GROUNDING.
3. POSITION 48.583N 004.717W. NOAA INCIDENTNEWS 6241: https://incidentnews.noaa.gov/incident/6241

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