Prestige oil spill causing great harm to the local fishing industry. The spill is the largest environmental disaster in the history of both Spain and Portugal. The amount of oil spilled was more than the "Exxon Valdez" incident and the toxicity considered higher, because of the higher water temperatures. In 2007 the Southern District of New York dismissed a 2003 lawsuit by the Kingdom of Spain against the American Bureau of Shipping, the international classification society which had certified the "Prestige" as in compliance with rules and laws, because ABS was a "person" per the International Convention on Civil Liability for Oil Pollution
North Cape oil spill effective. Several organizations worked together to create a restoration plan following the spill. The primary organizations involved were the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, and the United States Coast Guard. Captain Patrick A. Turlo was the commander on science for the Coast Guard. This was the first oil spill whose damages were to be assessed by the new federal regulations of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, a law designed to compensate the public for losses resulting from an oil spill. Projects included restocking wildlife populations