The Basque Government will activate a marine emergency plan and will try to collect on the high seas the plastic pellets that have already spread from Galicia to Asturias. The Basque Executive does not expect the waste to reach the Basque coast this week, although it highlights the risk that fish and birds will mistake it for food or that it will be incorporated into the human food chain, once the fish have ingested that plastic.
The Minister of Economic Development, Sustainability and Environment, Arantxa Tapia, has appeared to report on the measures to be adopted by her Executive in response to this spill of microplastics, which occurred after a container ship lost part of its cargo when it fell into the sea ??six containers.
As indicated, the Government Council has activated the Special Emergency Plan of Euskadi for the Pollution of the Itsasertza Sea Bank and in the next few hours the advisory commission will be convened.
In Tapia’s opinion, the environmental impact of this spill, although “important, is in no way comparable to what happened with the Prestige and the chapapote tide that then affected the entire Cantabrian coast.
In any case, the counselor has warned of two dangers. The first is that fish and birds mistake it for food, so that they do not look for more food because they feel full and die of starvation. Likewise, she has mentioned the risk of the pellets being incorporated into the food chain, when humans eat fish that have ingested that plastic, which according to “very incipient data”, has “zero or minimal” toxicity, she explained.
The Basque Government will focus its efforts on removing as many pellets as possible on the high seas, as it did with chapapote. As he explained, there is technology for this, although it entails some complications because it is a material with low density and a lot of mobility due to wind and tides, which can also “become semi-transparent.” “Surely some of it will reach the coast,” he indicated, while clarifying that “all cleaning mechanisms” will be activated to collect the plastic as quickly as possible.
The counselor wanted to be “very cautious” with the date on which the pellets will be seen off the Basque coast, although according to the latest data from the spill monitoring system at the Azti technology center, this is not expected to happen this week.
