Aerial view of the sinking of the Maltese oil tanker Erika (here the front of the boat), off penmarch, on December 12,1999. In the early hours of the morning, the Maltese-flagged 24-year-old ship shatters in the storm before sinking and dumping 20,000 tons of fuel oil over 400 kilometers of coastline, killing tens of thousands of birds and ravaging the sea. Photo by Le Gal/ANDBZ/ABACAPRESS.COM