So far, the ongoing clean-up effort following the MSC Zoe container spill in January has salvaged around 2 million kilos of the total estimated 3.4 million kilos which fell overboard.
Translation by Traci White
The Ministry for Infrastructure and Water Management says that around 1.4 million kilos of lost cargo remain on the sea bed north of the Wadden islands. Among the remaining unsalvaged cargo is one container that was carrying lithium ion batteries.
In addition to dedicated salvage ships, the captains of shrimp fishing vessels who operate in the area have also offered to helped with the clean-up effort. However, the fishing vessel have not gotten a clear response about how they would be compensated for their time and equipment costs. RTV Noordreports that the salvaged items have come from the Groningen and Frisian coasts, the Wadden islands and the Dutch and German sections of the North Sea.
On the night of 1 January, 342 containers fell into the North Sea near the Netherlands and Germany from the MSC Zoe, one of the largest container ships in the world. In the first days after the spill, thousands of kilos of damaged goods, ranging from plastic ponies to television screens, washed ashore on the Dutch islands and the northern Dutch coastline, and a massive volunteer clean-up effort got underway. The University of Groningen recently conducted research into the spread of plastic pellets which originated on the cargo ship.
