Finnish fuel company Neste is not to blame for the white clumps that washed up on the shoreline of Hanko earlier this year, according to findings of a probe by the Border Guard.
The white clumps began appearing along Hanko's extensive shoreline in January, and about a week later Neste announced that the substance very likely came from the wash water of a vessel used in the company's marine transport operations.
However, in a statement on Tuesday, the Border Guard said that Neste was not to blame for the incident.
According to the Border Guard, investigators did not rule out the possibility that the white substance could have originated from a ship that used a Russian port.
Members of WWF Finland and local volunteers spent days cleaning up the clumps all along the southern town's long shoreline.
In a statement, the Finnish Environment Institute (Syke) said that examinations of samples of the white clumps showed it did not contain substances considered harmful to the environment or to humans.
The substance was made up of natural fats and oils which are typically transported in large quantities around the Gulf of Finland for various industrial uses, for example.
Shortly after the clumps were noticed on Hanko's beaches, a large number of dead fish also began washing up on the shoreline, but the incidents turned out to be unrelated.