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On 23 February, a carrier ship was hit by strong winds while traveling from the Netherlands to Norway. The winds shifted the load on the ship, causing a hole to open in a container filled with millions of plastic pellets. Half of the 26 tonnes of pellets then spilled into the ocean.
Now, it has been estimated that around 10,000 of the pellets have floated ashore in Sweden and Norway. The pellets are extremely difficult to clean up by hand on beaches because of their small size. One scientist said they would almost need a gigantic vacuum to clean up all the plastic. Never-mind the massive effort it would take to extract the pellets from the sea.
Both birds and marine life are threatened by the pellets, as they perceive them as food. It is therefore, vital to find a way to rid the affected ecosystems of the plastic, but it will be very difficult to achieve.