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The Ship Sinking Off Sri Lanka Looks Like A Lasting Environmental Disaster

posted by Fnord666 on Sunday June 06 2021, @01:03PM   Printer-friendly

takyon writes:

The Ship Sinking Off Sri Lanka Looks Like A Lasting Environmental Disaster

A sinking cargo ship off the coast of Sri Lanka is causing an environmental disaster for the country that looks set to have long-term effects.

The X-Press Pearl caught fire on May 20 and burned for two weeks, but the fire appears to have mostly burned out. The crew was evacuated. The ship is now partially sitting on the seabed with its front settling down slowly.

Its cargo is the concern: The ship was carrying dangerous chemicals, including 25 tons of nitric acid and 350 tons of fuel oil. The ship's operator says oil has not spilled so far. But what's already having an impact on beaches nearby are the 78 metric tons of plastic called nurdles — the raw material used to make most types of plastic products.

Wave after wave of plastic pellets are washing ashore. The ship is about 5 miles from the nearest beach.

Also at The Guardian.

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 06 2021, @02:38PM (5 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 06 2021, @02:38PM (#1142369)

    Pellets of plastic are harmless. They may be ugly, and you can clean them up if you don't like them, but realistically they are no more harmful than an equivalent bunch of rocks.

    On the contrary, this is by far the most harmful part of the spill. The acid is mostly useless in non-immediate terms, true. The oil, that will disappear within a few weeks and definitely months since it's in warm waters. Maybe people should not eat animals from the area because of the oil -- that may just be good for the animals. Sea life rebounded more from the fishing moratorium thanks to Deep Water Horizon than harmed by the oil. The plastic, on the other hand, is total crap that will not biodegrade.. Comparing it to inert rocks is utter ignorance.

    From TFA,

    images of fish washed ashore with plastic trapped in their gills. That plastic “will continue to be in our oceans for decades and decades to come, polluting our coastline, ingested by marine life and entering into our lagoon systems”, he said.

    The ship carries up to 2700 containers. What's in them is not just some acid and pellets. Unless someone gets the ship manifest, it's unknown what type of pollutants went into the water.

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  • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 06 2021, @02:52PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 06 2021, @02:52PM (#1142371)

    But then there's also concern that these little particles, these pellets, can absorb chemical toxins from the ocean environment. And as they do so — and then they travel around, they obviously take these toxins with them.

    Sounds like the plastics are actually cleaning stuff up.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 06 2021, @04:19PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 06 2021, @04:19PM (#1142394)

      Cleaning up all the fish.

  • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 06 2021, @04:01PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 06 2021, @04:01PM (#1142385)

    The plastic, on the other hand, is total crap that will not biodegrade.. Comparing it to inert rocks is utter ignorance.

    To play Bill's Advocate, rocks don't biodegrade either...

    Sounds like if plastic would just sink and stay sunk like a proper rock does, we wouldn't have a problem. The real problem with it is the fact that it floats around, absorbing all manner of shite, and then gets eaten by wandering wildlife that can't process it.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 07 2021, @04:18AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 07 2021, @04:18AM (#1142634)

    it depends on the type of plastic; I've seen some of my plastic things disintegrate after 15 years; if it is the same type of plastic that they use in lego then the shrimp may have something to play with for thousands of years;

    • (Score: 3, Funny) by driverless on Monday June 07 2021, @08:32AM

      by driverless (4770) on Monday June 07 2021, @08:32AM (#1142686)

      it depends on the type of plastic; I've seen some of my plastic things disintegrate after 15 years

      This plastic was from China, which means it's going to disintegrate after 18 months, just past the warranty period for whatever it was going to be used to manufacture...