Abstract
The sinking of the Prestige tanker (November, 2002) spilled over 64000 tons of heavy fuel oil. The Prestige oil spill (POS) affected approximately 1000 km of coast belonging to Portugal, France and Spain and more than 600 sandy beaches were polluted along the Atlantic coast of Spain. Since POS, yearly surveys of two oiled sandy beaches (Galicia, NW Spain) have provided evidences regarding the oil pollution behavior and the influence of beach morphodynamics on the dynamics of the contamination. The analysis of wave climate, the extracted suction cores and the detected oil from 2004 and 2009 fieldworks have allowed to promote a conceptual model of the influence of beach morphodynamics on the first steps of an oil spill and to establish the effects on the long-term oil pollution