* Environmentalists say one of worst spills for years
* Shell says some 3,800 barrels, blames oil thieves
* Niger Delta suffers frequent spills
By Tife Owolabi
BONNY ISLAND, Nigeria, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Niger Deltafishermen are no strangers to seeing oil spill into their watersfrom leaky pipelines, but even they were shocked by the scale ofthe slick stretching for miles from a Shell facility across theswamps and into the ocean.
Some 3,800 barrels spilled, according to an investigation byShell and government officials. It ranks as one of theworst in Nigeria for years, local environmental activists said.
Shell said the spill was caused by a failed crude theft.
In a boat trip to the affected area, Reuters saw crudewashing up in pools in front of beach shacks, coating the rootsof palm trees and leaving a trail of dead sea life. In someareas, people scooped it up to fill drums and jerry cans.
"We saw dead fish, dead crabs ... This spill occurred 7-8nautical miles from the shore ... (so) the volume runs intothousands of barrels," Alagoa Morris, head of the Niger DeltaResource Centre for Environmental Rights Action, told Reuters.
Shell shut down its 28 inch pipeline carrying Bonny Lightcrude on Nov. 22 but the origin of the spill was from thesmaller 24 inch pipe, which was shut last year.
Africa's top oil producer loses tens of thousands of barrelsper day to oil theft that often causes spills, although many arealso caused by corroded pipelines.
A Shell spokesman said that some 1,200 barrels had beenrecovered as at Dec. 2 and "recovery efforts are continuing" atthe site on the Okolo Launch on Bonny Island.
"We can't go fishing anymore. It has destroyed our fishingequipment," Boma Macaulay, a fisherman from Bonny said, addingthat it was the worst spill he had seen for at least five years.
Shell is under pressure to pay damages on other spills.Parliament said last month that it should pay nearly $4 billionfor a spill at the offshore Bonga oilfield.
The Bodo community in Ogoniland is also suing the major fortwo massive spills in 2008 that devastated the area.
Shell said SPDC -- a Shell-run joint venture majority ownedby the Nigerian government -- deployed booms to contain the oil.
A fisherman who has others working for him, Emmanuel Reuben,said his revenue had dropped sharply from an average of up to50,000 naira ($280) a day to barely 5,000 naira a day.
"That's not even enough to fuel the boat I use for fishing,"Reuben said. (1 US dollar = 178.9 naira) (Writing and additional reporting by Julia Payne; Editing byTim Cocks)
