“Pollution of our oceans and ecosystems with plastic is one of the biggest problems facing humanity,” said Teresa Rivera, Spain’s Minister of the Environment.
advertisementMillions of tiny plastic pellets have washed up on the beaches of northern Spain, prompting local authorities to declare an environmental emergency.
Authorities believe the plastic came from a shipping container that fell overboard last month.
“These little plastic balls are an environmental problem because fish confuse them with fish eggs, eat them, enter the food chain, and end up on our plates,” says Spain’s Environment. said Cristóbal López, a spokesman for the conservation group Ecologista en Acción. Associated Press from a beach in Galicia.
The regional governments of Galicia and neighboring Asturias, which are bearing the brunt of the pollution, have asked Spain’s central government for help. On Monday, Spanish state prosecutors opened an investigation.
Prosecutors are concerned that the pellets may contain toxic substances, and said there was evidence that pellets had also been found on French beaches.
What are plastic pellets?
The Spanish government representative in Galicia announced that the container ship Toconao, flying the Liberian flag, lost six shipping containers off the coast of Portugal, about 80 kilometers west of Viana do Castelo.
One of the six containers contained 1,000 bags of pellets, and each bag contained 25 kilograms of small plastic balls. used in the manufacture of plastic product.
Why are plastic pellets an environmental disaster?
The leak was first reported to authorities on December 13, when hundreds of thousands of tiny white balls began washing up on Spain’s Atlantic coast.
Greenpeace and other environmental groups estimate the total amount of pellets lost to be in the millions. They say the pellets are dangerous to oceans and human life because they can break down into even smaller pieces. micro plastic It can later be consumed by fish caught by fishermen.
“Pollution of our oceans and ecosystems with plastic is one of the biggest problems facing humanity,” said Teresa Rivera, Spain’s Minister of the Environment. “So this significant amount of material was released. plastic Close monitoring is required to determine whether the carrier and carrier took appropriate precautions. ”
Volunteers and workers organized clean-up efforts. beach And the region’s coasts depend on a large seafood industry. Galicia’s coastline was devastated in 2002 by an oil spill from the tanker Prestige.