The memory of the Amoco Cadiz disaster of 1978 is still fresh in the minds of most people. The loaded VLCC drifted on to rocks 3 miles off l'Abervrach and caused almost a quarter of a million tons of crude oil to engulf the Brittany coast. Almost immediately some far-reaching measures were put into effect by the French authorities through IMCO to lessen the likelihood of a similar incident occurring again. Perhaps the most important of these were the fundamental alterations which were made to the traffic separation schemes off Ushant and the Casquets to route the large oil carriers well away from the French coast.