The material found in Bajamar matches in composition and color but is more “degraded” and has not been recently released into the ocean
SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Jan. 10 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Government of the Canary Islands has ruled out that the ‘pellets’ located this Wednesday by lifeguards on Bajamar beach, in the Tenerife municipality of La Laguna, come from the spill that affects the coasts of Galicia, Asturias and Cantabria.
This was announced to the media by the Deputy Minister of Territorial Policy, Water and Emergencies, Marcos Lorenzo, who appeared before the media together with the Head of the Civil Protection and Emergency Response Service, Montserrat Román, the Minister of Natural Environment of the Cabildo of Tenerife, Blanca Pérez and the professor of Analytical Chemistry at the University of La Laguna, Javier Hernández.
The Canary Islands Government has activated the Plateca (Territorial Civil Protection Emergency Plan of the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands) in a pre-alert situation and has activated the town councils and all institutions to coordinate actions and monitoring in case more are located. waste.
The ULL professor has pointed out that “it is physically impossible” for the Bajamar ‘pellets’ to arrive from Galicia even though they do agree that they are white and made of the same material, although “they are much more degraded” which gives to understand that “they are not pellets that have been released directly into the ocean very recently.
He has also pointed out that “they have a shine, plasticity and color that is extremely different from what plastics that have been around for longer can normally have.”
Along those lines, he has said that Galicia is about 1,600 kilometers away and if we consider the speed at which the ocean moves, even if it were thought that the ‘pellets’ came in a straight line and at a speed twice the usual speed, they would take a long time. time to arrive according to the modeling studies of the two Canarian universities and the Spanish Institute of Oceanography.
Hernández has stressed that this concentration of ‘pellets’ on Bajamar beach is “anomalous” because it is a part of the Canary coast that usually has low concentrations of microplastics, according to the three-year European study carried out on almost fifty beaches in Macaronesia.
In general, he has pointed out that what reaches the coasts of the archipelago are “fragments of plastic with irregular edges”, but up to 6% are ‘pellets’, which reach the coasts “on a regular basis.”
In that sense, he has assumed that they will continue to arrive in the Canary Islands from a ship spill somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean due to falling containers, and he has not hidden the fact that it is a “major environmental problem” because they will fragment “and “The more fragmented they are, the more they will reach, the more they will disperse and the more they will be able to affect many organisms.”
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He has given as an example that if a bird ingests it, its gastrointestinal tract can be obstructed and it may die or starve due to a “false feeling of satiety.”
Lorenzo has recognized the “social alarm” that the discovery of ‘pellets’ on the Canary Islands could generate but has insisted that “it has nothing to do” with the Galicia spill and that the protocols have been activated to clarify the “uncertainty” that could be caused.
He has also said that “although it is not good” that the ‘pellets’ are on the coasts of the islands, they do not have a “direct impact” on the health of citizens.
Román has commented that one of the objectives of activating the plan was to be able to determine the type of spill and the origin of the discovery in Laguna, and although other cases have also been reported in Las Canteras (Gran Canaria) and Lanzarote, for now it is believed that are not ‘pellets’.
Blanca Pérez, for her part, has clarified that the spill is limited for now “specifically” to the coast of Bajamar, although she recognizes that the amount that has appeared is “abnormal”, and they will follow up, especially if arrives at Almáciga beach, on the Anaga coast, a common destination for microplastics. “For now it is as usual,” she added.
