The Spanish coast is now threatened by the biggest oil spill in history. Predictably, as much time is being spent on figuring out who is to blame as is being spent on cleanup efforts. At issue are the "flags of convenience" that allow ships to be registered in countries with which they have only a marginal connection. The failure to crack down on this practice will only ensure more maritime disasters in the future.

The story behind the Spanish disaster is all too typical. The Prestige, a 26-year-old, single-hulled tanker, was traveling from Latvia when it encountered gale-force winds and rough seas off the coast of northwestern Spain. The weather split the ship's hull, but neither Spain nor Portugal would let the Prestige enter their ports, fearing an environmental and political backlash if the ship's condition deteriorated. Instead, it was towed out to sea, where five days later it cracked in two and sank some 215 km off the Spanish coast.

Prior to going down, the ship leaked about 5,000 tons -- about 15 percent -- of its cargo of fuel oil. When it finally sank, it still contained most of its 20 million gallons of fuel oil -- nearly double the load of crude oil carried by the Exxon Valdez, the ill-fated oil tanker that carries the dubious honor of causing the world's worst environmental catastrophe. Experts worry that the Prestige's spill could eventually be twice as big as that of the Valdez's 11.5 million-gallon disaster.