This is an important point and the example often taken is the loss of income suffered by tourist resorts where oil pollution in their areas caused people to stay away, thereby resulting in an economic loss to traders and hoteliers. One of the most recent disasters of this nature in European waters was caused by the sinking of the oil tanker Erika on Sunday, 12 December 1999. It was carrying 26,000 tonnes of fuel oil and it broke in two 60 miles off the beautiful coastline of Brittany in France. A coastguard official, referring to the impending environmental disaster that eventually struck 250 miles of French coastline, said that there was a clear danger of pollution but could not indicate how serious it would be. The seriousness soon became apparent. It became an environmental and economic disaster, with wide reaching consequences, not just directly for the environment and for bird and marine life, but also for the people who rely on the sea or tourism of Brittany and coastal regions further south for a living.