On Saturday the government of Spain activated an environmental emergency alert regarding oil slicks that threaten to come ashore beaches on the southwestern Canary Islands.

After analyzing ocean current data from Spain's Oceanographic Institute, the government activated a level 2 alert (the second highest alert level) saying that the oil slicks could affect the islands' coasts.

As reported in The Associated Press, the Spanish government announced that one beach had been cleared of oil, and that clean-up operations were occurring on three other beaches near the tourist town of Maspalomas on Gran Canaria.

On April 11 a Russian trawler called the Oleg Naydenov caught fire in a local port and was towed out to sea as a precaution, an act which was much criticized by environmental groups like Greenpeace.

The boat, which carried 1,400 metric tons of fuel oil, sank on April 14, about 15 miles south of the island. The government has since announced that currents could carry slicks resulting from the Oleg Naydenov to other nearby islands.

The government statement released on Saturday said, “The emergency level 2 is activated for all the Canary Islands and proactively planned surveillance flights are now surveying the south of Tenerife and La Gomera islands."

The reaction to the impending ecological disaster has been great, as Greenpeace posted photographs of a dolphin partially coated in oil, and Spanish state television showed images of workers cleaning a beach that was stained black with oil.

Jose Antonio Rodriguez, a spokesman for the Red Cross, explained the Veneguera beach on Gran Canaria island, a much frequented European vacation area, had indeed been cleaned up.

The Canary islands are a popular destination for European visitors and are subsequently vital to the tourism industry.