Spain investigates contamination of shore by countless plastic pellets from ship

Spanish state prosecutors have opened an investigation of countless tiny plastic pellets washing up on the country’s northwest coastline after they were spilled from a transport ship, posing a possible major ecological problem in the area.
The state prosecutor’s office made the announcement late on Monday after having studied the arrival of pellets on the shore during the previous weeks.
The prosecutors fear that the pellets could have toxic properties and added that there are indications that they have also been found on Portuguese and even French shores.
The spill was first reported to authorities on Dec. 13 when hundreds of thousands of tiny white balls began washing up on Spain’s Atlantic shoreline.