Hundreds more are on standby to help with the cleanup operation. It is expected that around 500 schoolchildren from across the country will join the cleanup today. Some local teams are lining the French coasts with barriers and installed floating blockades in coastal water. Workers are also unloading such as wheelbarrows and shovels from storage facilities along the coast. French Agriculture Minister Jean Glavany promised aid for fishermen and shellfish farmers affected by the spill.
Many observers fear that the mollusk and shellfish populations are ruined.
Meanwhile, France's Environment Minister, Dominique Voynet, has taken renewed criticism for underestimating the gravity of the oil spill. She said in December that it was not an ecological disaster. Turkish oil spill cleanup worker displays oily hands. The World Wide Fund for Nature in the UK is calling upon Europe's leaders to take urgent action to prevent further devastation of Europe's coastline. The conservation group has been lobbying the International Maritime Organisation and national governments to undertake a detailed risk assessment of the Western European and Mediterranean seaboards following a series of major oil spills which have damaged coastlines in the UK, France and Spain over the past 30 years.