Spain probes contamination of beaches after plastic pellets spilled from ship

9 January 2024, 18:14

Spain Plastic Pollution
Spain Plastic Pollution. Picture: PA

Greenpeace and other environmental groups calculate the total amount of pellets lost to be in the millions.

Countless tiny plastic pellets are washing up on the shores of northern Spain and local authorities have declared an environmental emergency after a shipping container fell off a transport vessel last month.

The regional governments of Galicia, which has borne the brunt of the pollution, and neighbouring Asturias asked Spain’s national government to help, and on Monday prosecutors opened an investigation.

Prosecutors fear the pellets could have toxic properties and said there are indications they had also been found on French shores.

“These little balls of plastic are an environmental problem because fish confuse them with fish eggs and eat them and they enter the food chain … and end up on our dinner tables,” Cristobal Lopez, spokesman for the Spanish environmental group Ecologistas en Accion, told the Associated Press.

Spain Plastic Pollution
A volunteer holds plastic pellets collected from a beach in Nigran, Pontevedra, Spain (Lalo R Villar/AP)

The spill was first reported to authorities on December 13 when hundreds of thousands of tiny white balls began washing up on Spain’s Atlantic shoreline.

Spain’s government representative for the Galicia region said the container ship Toconao, sailing under a Liberian flag, lost six containers off the coast of Portugal, 50 miles west of Viana do Castelo.

One of the six containers contained 1,000 sacks of pellets, each holding 55lb of the tiny plastic balls used in the fabrication of plastic products, the government representative said.

Greenpeace and other environmental groups calculate the total amount of pellets to be in the millions. They say the pellets represent a danger for marine and human life because they can break down into even smaller microplastics that can be consumed by fish that are later caught by fishermen.

“The contamination of the oceans and ecosystems with plastics is one of the biggest problems faced by humanity,” said Spain’s minister for the environment, Teresa Ribera. “So the spilling of such an important quantity of plastics requires close oversight and to determine if the transport company and shipping company exercised the proper precautions.”

Maersk, the shipping company contracted to transport the containers, told the AP that the containers were lost on December 8 in the deep sea during the voyage from Spain’s southern port of Algeciras to Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Spain Plastic Pollution
Spanish prosecutors have opened an investigation into countless tiny plastic pellets washing up on the country’s northwest coastline (Lalo R Villar/AP)

It said the Toconao is a charter vessel, not one of the Danish company’s fleet, and it works on the company’s route between northern Europe and the Mediterranean.

“None of the six containers contained dangerous goods. One of them was loaded with bags with little plastic pellets for the production of food-grade packaging like water bottles,” Maersk said. “The vessel owners have appointed multiple clean-up specialists to support removing the pellets.”

Maersk said it is investigating the cause of the lost containers to “take necessary steps to minimise the risk of similar incidents occurring in the future”.

Volunteers and workers are cleaning up the beaches and coasts of the area, which depends on a large fish and shellfish industry. Galicia’s marine coastline was devastated by an oil spill from the Prestige tanker in 2002.

The European Commission proposed measures last October to help prevent the mishandling and spillage of plastic pellets. The measures must be debated by the 27 EU member states and the European Parliament, and would enter into force 18 months after any agreement is reached.

Jordi Oliva, co-founder of Good Karma Projects, a Spanish NGO dedicated to fighting microplastics in the sea, said this is the largest single spill of pellets his group has seen in Spanish waters. He said he hoped this incident could help push the EU and national authorities to act.

By Press Association

Latest World News

See more Latest World News

Video footage shows the convoy had emergency lights flashing when it was hit

Israel admits ‘mistakenly’ killing 15 aid workers after video leak contradicted official version of events

Jaguar Land Rover has paused shipments to the US in the wake of 'Liberation Day' tariffs

Jaguar Land Rover halts shipments to US in wake of tariffs as Trump insists he'll win 'economic revolution'

Flowers and toys left on a swing seat to commemorate victims killed in Russia's missile attack on Friday

Death toll from Russian strike on Zelenskyy's home town rises as 18 confirmed dead - including nine children

Donald Trump's 10% tariff on UK products has officially come into force

Trump tariffs come into force as global stock markets plunge deeper into the red

Tom Howard

British tourist killed after being struck by boulder on trek through Himalayas

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, a car burns following a Russian missile attack that killed more than a dozen people, including children, in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine, Friday, April 4, 2025. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

Russia kills 16 people including three children in missile strike on Zelenskyy's home town, with dozens wounded

Travel influencer Mykhailo Viktorovych Polyakov, 24, made an illegal visit to North Sentinel Island

Tourist who left Coke for world's most isolated tribe 'could have wiped them all out' - and police 'can't go collect can'

White House weighs in to support ‘censored’ anti-abortion activists in Britain

White House looking to support ‘censored’ anti-abortion activists in Britain

This image provided by NASA shows Nick Hague, right, Suni Williams, and Butch Wilmore. (NASA via AP)

Stranded NASA astronauts reveal they were almost trapped in space 'forever' after horror malfunction

Donald Trump demands France 'free Marine Le Pen'

Donald Trump demands France 'free Marine Le Pen' after far-right leader found guilty of embezzlement in 'witch hunt'

China will impose a 34% retaliatory tariff on imports from the US

China announces additional 34% tariffs on US imports in retaliation over Trump's 'Liberation Day' levies

Friends of Prince Andrew say he's "unsurprised" Giuffre made the post

Prince Andrew 'not surprised' his accuser shared shock post saying she had 'four days to live'

South Korea's impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol

South Korea president Yoon Suk Yeol removed from office as impeachment upheld over martial law declaration

Virginia Giuffre

Woman driving Prince Andrew accuser Virginia Giuffre during crash that left her with 'four days to live' breaks silence

Exclusive
'Donald Trump has made Putin comfortable,' Mikhail Khodorkovsky has warned

'Trump has made Putin comfortable' despite massive Ukraine war losses, exiled former oligarch tells LBC

The bodies of Andrew Searle and his wife Dawn were discovered by a neighbour.

British couple found dead in south of France home being ‘treated as murder-suicide’