An oil spill from the port of Antwerp last week is spreading into the nature reserves of Zeeland (a coastal province in the southwestern Netherlands), with iridescent oil sheens now visible across several kilometres of the Schor van Waarde tidal marshes and near the village of Bath. Dutch forestry authority Staatsbosbeheer warns that the spill — comprising both a heavy sediment layer and a thin surface film — poses a long-term threat to soil life, aquatic plants, and animals throughout the food chain, with the fast-spreading surface film described as a "silent killer" that cannot be removed from open water. Ecologists note that the heavy fuel oil contains toxic and carcinogenic substances that can kill wildlife outright or cause growth impairment and reduced reproduction, while the oil film also blocks sunlight vital to underwater plants and algae.