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An operation is under way to retrieve thousands of plastic pellets from the North Sea that were spilt in a collision between two ships last week, in which one man died.
The coastguard said the pellets, made of plastic resin and known as nurdles, were spotted by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) and have begun to wash up on beaches in East Yorkshire and the surrounding coast.
Although they are not toxic, they do pose a danger to wildlife, the coastguard said.
The small pieces of plastic, between 1mm and 5mm, are thought to have entered the water when a container ship crashed into a tanker carrying jet fuel for the US military on Monday 10 March.
Both vessels caught fire after several explosions, and 36 crew were rescued, including Americans onboard the tanker, Stena Immaculate, and members of the Russian and Filipino crew of the Solong, the container ship.
The chief coastguard, Paddy O’Callaghan, said: “Yesterday [Sunday], the RNLI advised the Maritime and Coastguard Agency of a sighting in waters just off the Wash [a bay of the east coast of England] of a sheen that we now know to be plastic nurdles. This was confirmed by aerial surveillance flights, and other assets have subsequently been deployed. Some nurdles have now also been identified on the shore.
“Retrieval has started today. This is a developing situation and the transport secretary continues to be updated regularly.”
News of the nurdles comes after the master of one of the vessels appeared in court at the weekend charged with gross negligence manslaughter.
Vladimir Motin, 59, a Russian national, was in charge of the Solong container ship when it collided with a the US-flagged tanker carrying jet fuel on 10 March about 12 miles (19km) off the East Yorkshire coast, leaving one man dead.
The Crown Prosecution Service said that a Filipino national, Mark Angelo Pernia, 38, was missing and presumed dead after the collision between Motin’s vessel and the Stena Immaculate.
On Saturday, Motin appeared at Hull magistrates court. He did not enter a plea and was remanded in custody to appear at the Old Bailey, in London, on 14 April.
On Friday, O’Callaghan said both vessels were “stable” and salvors had boarded them to continue damage assessments.
He added: “There are now only small periodic pockets of fire on the Solong, which are not causing undue concern.
“Specialist tugs with firefighting capability remain at both vessels’ locations.
“Regular aerial surveillance flights continue to monitor the vessels and confirm that there continues to be no cause for concern from pollution from either the Stena Immaculate or from the Solong.”
It was initially feared the Solong, a container ship with a Portuguese flag, was carrying the highly toxic chemical sodium cyanide, but its owner, the Hamburg-based maritime firm Ernst Russ, said four containers that had previously held the substance were empty.
