A great number of wrecks exist in the sea or on the ocean bed all over the world, many of them having a quantity of hydrocarbons trapped in their tanks (cargo and/or fuel). Each one of these wrecks constitutes a more or less serious threat for the environment in the shorter or longer term.

Maritime disasters leading to major environmental pollution happen fairly regularly every two to three years: Amoco-Cadiz in 1978, Tanio in 1980, Aegean Sea in 1992, etc. In December 1999, the sinking of the tanker Erika caused a major pollution along the coasts of Brittany and triggered several measures aiming at the prevention of similar maritime catastrophes. Several proposals were made on the prompt mitigation of the results of such accidents, by treating the released hydrocarbons with intervention on the wreck to seal the leaks or pumping the trapped hydrocarbons out. However, few of these proposals went further than the conceptual state; none of them was anywhere close to a practical intervention system.

On 19 November 2002, the tanker Prestige, loaded with 77 000 tonnes of heavy fuel oil, broke apart and sunk 133 miles off Cape Finisterre. At the beginning of December 2002, the Prestige wreck was leaking as much as 125 tonnes of oil every day. Although many of the 20 leaks were stopped by the submersible Nautilus of Ifremer, 14 months after the accident the wreck was still leaking about 350 kg daily. An intervention method through special 'shuttle bags' was developed and tested by the Spanish company Repsol YPF to extract the oil from the wreck. At the end of the process, almost two years after the accident, less than 15% of the original fuel load of Prestige had been recuperated; 25% had leaked before its sinking, while 60% of its original load had slowly dispersed in the ocean during the 22 months it took to plan and implement the intervention.

The Prestige case puts in evidence, among other things, the lack of tools, systems and methodologies for the prompt intervention on shipwrecks in order to confine the pollution and thus eliminate the source of the pollution threat.