Spanish state prosecutors have launched an investigation into thousands of small plastic pellets that spilled from a transport ship and washed up on the country’s northwestern coastline.
MADRID — Spain’s state prosecutor says thousands of small plastic pellets spilled from a transport ship have washed ashore on the country’s northwestern coastline, potentially causing serious ecological problems in the region. We started an investigation.
State prosecutors made the announcement late Monday after investigating pellets that arrived on shore in the past few weeks.
Prosecutors are concerned that the pellets may contain toxic substances, adding that there is evidence that the pellets have also been found on beaches in Portugal and France.
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.
The Spanish government representative in northwest Galicia said the container ship Toconao, flying the Liberian flag, lost six shipping containers off the coast of Portugal, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) west of Viana do Castelo. did.
Government representatives said one of the six containers contained 1,000 bags of pellets, and each bag contained 25 kilograms of small plastic balls used to make plastic products. .
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 break down into even smaller microplastics, which can then be ingested by fish caught by fishermen.
Volunteers and workers organized to clean beaches and coastlines in areas dependent on the large-scale seafood industry. Galicia’s coastline was devastated in 2002 by an oil spill from the tanker He Prestige.