Black days for Europe's mightiest fishing port

Vigo is watching with horror and fury as the oil slick spewed from the Prestige works its way south and threatens the city's role as the international hub of trade in canned and frozen seafood.

Europe's mightiest fishing port, second only to Tokyo as a world fish trader, entrepreneurs warned yesterday that fears of contamination by the deadly sludge struck at the heart of this maritime gateway to Europe.

"The tragedy is producing a psychosis in the market," said Juan Vieites, head of Spain's association of fish canneries, freezer and purification plants, Anfaco, based in Vigo. Anfaco represents 675 companies and supplies 30 per cent of Europe's canned fish. "Consumers think what's on sale is already contaminated, and they aren't buying.

"In Madrid the other day, wholesalers told me not to send any more canned mussels until we see what happens. Around Vigo, we account for 90 per cent of Europe's mussel production. The knock-on effect is incalculable," Mr Vieites said. Twenty thousand people in Vigo, Pontevedra and Arosa work in canning and freezing, the only industry of substance in Galicia.

Canning has been so important in the development of Vigo from fishing hamlet to maritime industrial complex that the prosperous leading families were called the sardinocracia. Then the invention in Vigo in the Seventies of the ocean-going refrigerated ship – floating factories that ply the world's fishing grounds off Newfoundland, the Falklands and Namibia for months – confirmed the port as Europe's leader.

Long after midnight, in the long high harbourside wharfs, women in rubber boots and overalls were sorting skate and eels unloaded from a boat that had been fishing for a month in the North Atlantic Gran Sol.

Maria Luisa shouted above the clatter of crates: "At first I was afraid about this black tide. Now I'm angry, furious at the stupidity of politicians who let this floating timebomb stroll around our shores." Her sturdy arms were a blur as she flung the chilled fish around. "How many more tragedies must we endure before they realise the danger?"

Deep-sea fishing is not immediately at risk, but workers on Vigo's refrigerated boats are angry nonetheless. "This is a national and international problem," said Manolo Camano, head of the militant CUT trade union for 7,000 deep-sea fisherman, mostly from the port of Cangas that faces Vigo across the wide and handsome ria. "We're frustrated and angry. God knows we've faced the dangers long enough."

Anger extends through the fisherwomen in Vigo's Berbes market, an echoing multi-storey chamber where morning prices determine those of seafood throughout Spain. "See these black shrimp?" one said. "They are the best, and I'm taking some home for lunch. But people think they're black with oil and won't buy."

Hermitas, sprightly at 73, has been selling oysters on the street outside the market for 50 years. She lays a dozen on a plate for €8 (£5). "The atmosphere is bad, very depressed. If that black stuff comes into our ria, we'll have to close down everything for 10 years."

As I gulp down the oysters with a glass of wine, trying to shelter from the squally sleet, a gaiteiro, or bagpiper, swings down the street playing Galicia's traditional mournful melodies. Angel, 34, says he has been playing the gaita since he was 13. "If we lose the sea, we lose our bread. More people live indirectly from the sea than go to fish. The restaurants depend on seafood for tourists and I depend on tourists." Angel accepts an oyster and complains his takings have fallen since the euro came in, because people feel they have less to spend.

Fewer boats than usual unloaded yesterday, preferring to wait offshore until the storms abated, so the sorting women and stevedores stumbled home before dawn, some stopping for a drink at the sleepy portside bar Las Almas Perdidas (Lost Souls).

As the downpour intensified, a spectacular blond prostitute in a black off-the-shoulder evening gown sashayed towards the port like Mae West, terrifying a group of tipsy youngsters who slunk away. These are bad days for Vigenses, whatever their trade.