A ship carrying 20,000 tonnes of explosive fertiliser dumped 300 tonnes of its load into the North Sea, before docking in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk.
The vessel, branded a “floating bomb” by The Sun as its annomium nitrate fertiliser has been known to blow up, was turned away by several other European countries before being admitted into the Norfolk port.
It had set off from the Russian port of Kandalaksha in August this year and was heading to Malta.
It docked in the UK in October, but concerns were expressed that it was carrying too large a quantity of ammonium nitrate. In response, the vessel turned and ventured back out to sea to offload a portion of it.
Evolutionary biology professor at the University of East Anglia Ben Garrod said it would have a “devastating impact on local maritime species”.
He told BBC Norfolk: “I see this as a massive loss to our local community because we’re dumping pollution into our local environment”.
MV Ruby arrived in Norfolk on October 28 but the amount of ammonium nitrate on board rang alarm bells. The 20,000 tonnes was seven times the amount involved in a deadly blast in Beirut in 2020, which killed 218 and injured 7,000.
According to the Telegraph, Paul Williams, a fisherman, said: “We are right in the middle of the herring season when all the herring come down here to spawn.
“This really shouldn’t be happening. It’s awful.”
However, the Government is thought to believe that the discarded material will eventually “dissipate without leaving a trace”.
