According to CNN Portugal, the National Maritime Authority is preparing an action plan, which involves several entities, to remove the objects if they reach the Portuguese coast.

“Right now the dominant currents are to the north. It is likely that these particles will reach Portugal in the spring, when the direction of the currents changes. The first step will be to activate beach surveillance, also using civil society, and the second step will be to implement a tailor-made and supervised contingency plan”, explained the hydrobiologist from the University of Porto, speaking to Lusa.

Bordalo e Sá observed that the granulate, used as raw material for plastic products (known as 'pellets' or 'nurdles', in English), easily transforms into nanoplastic, reaching the food chain of fish and bivalves and, consequently, to that of human beings.

The regions of Northern Spain, from Galicia to the Basque Country, have activated or raised environmental alerts because of tons of tiny plastic balls that fell into the sea in December in Portuguese waters.

Considering that the beaches of northern Spain are facing “a tide of plastic”, Bordalo e Sá noted that the problem is being faced by “very dynamic authorities, because Spain is a decentralised country”.

“The bulk of the content [of plastic particles] will end up in Galicia and will reach France. We have experience of the Entre-os-Rios tragedy [in 2001, several people died following the collapse of a bridge and bodies were found in Galicia and France]. But without a doubt they can reach Portugal”, he warned.

According to information released by the Spanish government, the owner of the boat that on December 8th lost containers of the cargo it was transporting, 80 kilometers from Viana do Castelo, said that more than a thousand bags containing around 26.2 tons of these balls with around five millimeters in diameter, used to manufacture plastics and which are now washing up on the coast in northern Spain.

In the other containers that fell overboard (at least five more) there were tires, rolls of cling film and aluminum bars, according to information provided by the boat's owner to the Spanish authorities.

The first bags with plastic balls were identified on December 13 on beaches in Galicia, on the border with Northern Portugal.

However, it was at the end of last week that plastic balls dispersed outside of bags began to arrive on the Galician coast in large numbers.