Dutch divers still haul up debris six years after container spill

LAUWERSOOG, Netherlands (AFP) — Volunteer Dutch divers are still fishing debris from the North Sea six years after a disastrous shipping accident.

They are trying to clear the shallow Wadden Sea where the MSC Zoe — one of the world’s largest cargo ships — lost hundreds of containers of car parts, televisions, light bulbs, furniture and toys in a 2019 storm.

Despite cleanup efforts, debris still litters the seabed of the UNESCO-listed tidal wetland, which spans the coasts of the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark.

On a grey summer day, they “salvaged a set of nets and debris and also I think it was electrical cables, probably from the MSC Zoe,” volunteer Harold Batteram, 67, told Agence France-Presse, his diving suit covered with little wriggling crustaceans.

The spill also released organic peroxide, a toxic and highly flammable chemical used in plastics manufacturing.

“In a split second, the whole Wadden Sea beaches were like a heap of junk,” said Ellen Kuipers, the director of the CleanUpXL project.