"This is the worst pollution event I have ever seen. It is contaminated plastic. Marine animals will ingest small plastic items once they are in the sea, they will attract algae, they will smell like food, effectively. Once they've eaten it, that's it: they can't get it out. They will float on the surface. It will create a slick which attracts plunging seabirds."
"Camber Sands, in East Sussex, is one of England's most beloved beaches, with rare dune habitat and vast stretches of golden sand. Volunteers have been racing against time to clear the beads, filling dozens of bags with the plastic waste, but the scale of the pollution spill is vast and it is unlikely they will be able to remove all of them."
Millions of tiny contaminated plastic biobeads have washed up across Camber Sands, posing a serious environmental threat to seabirds, porpoises, seals and other marine life. The beads are suspected to have originated from a nearby water treatment centre, prompting an investigation and formal queries to Southern Water. Local volunteers, council officers and campaign groups have been raking and vacuuming pellets into dozens of bags, but the scale makes full removal unlikely. The pellets can float, attract algae, smell like food and be ingested by animals, causing potentially fatal harm.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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