Plastics, nurdles, and pyrogenic microplastics in the coastal marine environment: Implications of the X-Press Pearl Maritime Disaster

Plastic nurdles widely exist in open ocean and coastal marine environments due to extensive leakage of nurdles from industrial facilities and during transport. Plastics also spill into the ocean during maritime accidents. Plastic nurdle pollution has been frequently reported worldwide. The MV X-Press Pearl (XPP) cargo ship fire was the largest plastic-based disaster from a single vessel in maritime history and caused the worst maritime accident ever recorded in Sri Lanka. During the shipwreck, there were nearly 12000 MT of plastic materials on board the ship. A massive amount of floating debris, including plastic pellets washed into the nearby coastal belt. Sarakkuwa Beach was the most contaminated coastal region, being littered with nurdles, pyrogenic microplastics, and large plastic debris. This chapter first describes worldwide plastics and microplastic pollution in ocean and coastal environments from accidental spillages and other anthropogenic sources. Later, the XPP is comprehensively discussed including (i) contamination of Sarakkuwa Beach, (ii) the southeastern coastline, (iii) Negombo Lagoon and Kelani River half a year after the XPP shipwreck, and (iv) the environmental impacts of the spill.