2024-01-10 12:49:04
Environmental crisis (once again) in Galicia. The same coasts that 21 years ago were stained black as a result of the fuel spill from the ‘Prestige’ in what was the worst environmental catastrophe in Spain are now stained white, due to another spill. Different, but also toxic; or at least, that is what the Prosecutor’s Office considers. On December 8, the Liberian-flagged ship Toconao lost six containers in the Atlantic, about 80 kilometers west of Viana do Castelo (northern Portugal); One of the containers carried a thousand bags with 1.23 million pellets each. The more than 26 tons of plastic pellets (and the rest of the contents of other containers, such as tires or plastic wrap) ended up in the sea and are now mixed with the sand on the beaches.
What has happened to the dumping of pellets in Galicia?
On December 8, the Toconao ship loses its containers: 26 tons of plastic pellets end up in the ocean. The president of the Xunta, Alfonso Rueda, assures that he does not have the first official communication of the spill until December 29. However, an individual calls to Maritime Rescue to alert on December 13 of the presence of “some bags with plastic balls” on a beach. Furthermore, the first document from the Ministry of Ecological Transition on the dumping of pellets is signed on December 14. On January 8, Asturias activates alert level 2 for the spill, while the The Xunta de Galicia rectifies and raises its emergency level also to 2. Also on January 9, the pellets begin to be seen on the beaches of Cantabria and reach the coasts of France
#contamination #microplastics #Galicia #Asturias #Cantabria #Basque #Country