During recent weeks, large quantities of small white plastic balls, known as “pellets”, have appeared on several Galician beaches in the Barbanza region. This fact has put environmental entities on alert, calling for immediate action to avoid an environmental disaster.
The “pellets” have appeared in bags of approximately 25 kilos on the sandy beaches of the Rías Baixas and in the Muros e Noia estuary, under the name of a company based in Poland. As mentioned by the Noia Limpa association, the balls began to arrive on December 13.
A merchant ship called ‘Tocano’ was sailing Portuguese waters when it lost several containers that were part of its cargo. Unfortunately, one of these containers contained plastic “pellets”, balls smaller than five millimeters used to make plastic products.
The loss of merchandise by the cargo ship is an ecological disaster, since it can harm seabirds, as pointed out by the Spanish Society of Ornithology (SEO/BirdLife).
One of the affected areas is the one made up of the beaches of Espiñeirido and Balieiros, in Ribeira, where the Corrubedo Natural Park is also located. It has beaches, lagoons and a dune that are home to a variety of wintering water birds.
For this reason, the NGO has requested that “there be a control and study of the possible impacts that this spill may have on biodiversity”, asking the authorities to “strengthen cleaning actions to remove the “pellets” from the coasts and open an investigation to find out the environmental impact and the origin of the accident to demand responsibilities.”
