RIBEIRA, Spain (Reuters) – Hundreds of volunteers sifted through sandy beaches in northwest Spain on Monday with strainers and shovels after bags filled with millions of plastic pellets washed up on the coasts of Galicia, raising concerns for the environment.
Sometimes called “mermaid tears” or “nurdles,” these plastic pellets are used to make everyday items – from water bottles to shopping bags – and are known to worsen the problem of plastic contaminating homes. oceans and rivers around the world.
The millions of pellets washed up in Spain come from at least one container that fell from the Toconao – a ship registered in Liberia and chartered by shipping giant Maersk – off the coast of Portugal last month, the pellets’ manufacturer said. Bedeko Europe, in a press release.
Deputy Prime Minister Maria Jesus Montero told state broadcaster TVE that the government feared “serious repercussions” but did not yet know the exact impact and did not know whether fishing would be affected.
Scenes of beach cleaning by locals using household items revived memories of Galicia’s worst environmental disaster, the spill of 63,000 tonnes of fuel oil in 2002, which led to the closure of the most important fishing grounds. fishmongers from Spain.
“Unfortunately, we are all confronted with images of the past that we would like to erase,” said Maria Jesus Montero.
According to a report published in 2020 by the Pew Charitable Trusts, an estimated 10 trillion plastic pellets pollute marine ecosystems each year.
Environmental group Ecologistas en Accion denounced the regional government’s “inaction two weeks after detecting the spill” and said Friday it would file an environmental crime complaint against Toucan Maritime, the ship’s Dutch owner.
Alfonso Rueda, head of the autonomous community of Galicia and a member of Spain’s conservative opposition Popular Party, said the Spanish government had known about the dispersal of the pellets for more than two weeks, but did not had informed his administration that on January 4.
Madrid’s representative in Galicia said the maritime rescue service first informed the regional coast guard of the incident on December 20.
(Reporting Miguel Vidal and Emma Pinedo, written by David Latona; French version Stéphanie Hamel, editing by Kate Entringer)
©2024 Thomson Reuters, all rights reserved. Reuters content is the intellectual property of Thomson Reuters or its third party content providers. Any copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. Thomson Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. “Reuters” and the Reuters Logo are trademarks of Thomson Reuters and its affiliated companies.