In 1979, a Greek oil tanker collided with another ship during a tropical storm, spilling 340 million liters of crude oil off the coast of Trinidad and Tobago. A year earlier, the Ixtoc exploratory well blew out in the Bay of Campeche off Ciudad del Carmen, Mexico. By the time it was brought under control almost a year later, it spilled some 530 million liters of oil into the bay. There was another oil spill that year when the Amoco Cadiz ran aground off the coast of Britanny, France, spilling its entire cargo of 260 million liters of oil and polluting 322 km of coastline.
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