Tarnished Prestige: Yes, by all accounts, the damage could have been greatly mitigated had the ship been brought into a port so that they could contain, drain and explain. However, no one was offering their docks, and no politician was going to make the decision. Moreover, it appears that there was only one company in the area that could have addressed the spill in a timely fashion. Finally, (and this isn't so much Euro-bashing as bashing universally), the rules on phasing out the single-hullers are so lax that it will still be a number of years before they're all gone. In any event, it was a typical European response. They can rail against our dependence on oil, but when push comes to shove, they weren't willing to lift a finger to ameliorate what became an environmental disaster. You know they're hoping for a drunk captain. One problem is that they can't tell who really owns the ship, much less who will assume responsibility.