Beaches, Greed and Environmental Cost

Anyone who lives in the UK cannot have failed to have heard about the MSC Napoli, a 65,000 tonne cargo ship carrying more than 2000 containers bound for Portugal and beyond.
While I think it is quite repugnant the way lots of people have descended on the containers which have washed up from the vessel and ripped them open believing they have a god given right to whatever washes up on the beach, no questions asked, and therefore they haul away vast amounts of goods to try and make a quick buck, this isn't what really upsets me about this incident. What sickens me to the core is the total disregard these people have for the aftermath of their grasping attitude. The beach is littered with debris, packaging and whatever people have hauled out of containers (in more than one case the personal belongings of people who were moving to another part of the world to start a new life) and decided they don't want.

There is twisted metal, plastic and all kinds of packing materials left on the foreshore, and although the environmental impact of the oil leaking from the ship will be the one most reported, there is a significant threat to wildlife posed by this rubbish on the beach. Worse still, a lot of this has already been washed out by the tides and is now littering the bay and beyond. I find litter anywhere offensive but on the seashore doubly so because I studied oceanography at university and I know what it can do to the environment and the creatures that live in it. Birds who swallow plastic are generally destined for a slow and painful death either through starvation, infection, internal injuries or suffocation. Marine creatures are equally vulnerable to debris like this and the "I'm alright Jack" attitude of the scavengers makes my blood boil. If I lived closer, I would go down and volunteer to help clean it up immediately. I am pleased that the police have finally cordoned off the area but I fear much damage has already been done.

We as humans are capable of incredibly good things but even at our best we only ever seem to be one small step away from the most appallingly crass behaviour which is a terrible tragedy and in this case, it will be the local people who suffer as a result of the greed of the people who have traveled for miles to join in the carnage. Sometimes, I'm ashamed to be human. We just don't have any respect for our environment at all.