Spatio-temporal variation of plastic pellets dispersion in the coastline of Sri Lanka: An assessment of pellets originated from the X-Press Pearl incident during the Southwest monsoon in 2021

A data driven oil spill mapping using GMM clustering and damping ratio on X-Press Pearl ship disaster in the Indian Ocean

The work presented in this paper is focused on the largest marine disaster to have occurred in the Indian Ocean due to the breakup of the container tanker ship X-Press Pearl. In order to identify the oil spill and its temporal evolution, a recently proposed damping ratio (DR) index is employed. To derive the DR, a data-driven GMM-EM clustering method optimized by stochastic ordering of the resulting classes in Sentinel 1 SAR time series imagery is proposed. A ship-born oil spill site is essentially considered to consist of three subsites: oil, open sea, and ship. The initial site probability densities were determined by using k-means clustering. In addition to the clustering method, two histogram-based approaches, namely contextual peak thresholding (CPT) and contextual peak ordering (CPO), were also formulated and presented. The improved histogram peak detection methods take into account spatial and contextual dependencies. The similarity of the marginal probability densities of the open sea and the oil classes makes it difficult to quantify the DR values to show the level of dampening. In the study, we show that reasonable class separability to correctly determine the σVV0,seaθ is possible by using GMM clustering. Resulting class separability's are also reported using JM and ML distances. The methods tested show the range of derived DR values stays significantly within similar ranges to each other. The outcomes were tested with the ground-based surveys conducted during the disaster for oil spill sites and other chemical compounds. The proposed methods are simple to execute, robust, and fully automated. Further, they do not require masking the oil or the selection of high-confidence water pixels manually.

Case report of plastic nurdles pollution in Galicia (NW Atlantic) following the Toconao's spill in December 2023: The VIEIRA Collaborative

Plastic nurdles pose a significant environmental threat due to recurrent accidental spills into marine ecosystems. This report examines the nurdle pollution over the 1498 km of the Galician coastline (Spain) following the spill of 25 t of nurdles into the Northwest Atlantic after the loss of six containers from the Toconao vessel in December 2023. This accident highlights the urgent need for proactive, effective measures in maritime transport to prevent and mitigate such environmental catastrophes. The complexity of nurdle dispersion challenges the evaluation of their fate at sea, and the potential long-term consequences on the marine ecosystem and food web remain uncertain and yet to be investigated. This report also presents the VIEIRA collaborative and underscores the critical role of citizen-led initiatives in responding to such environmental disasters, and advocates for efficient policy reforms, involving cross-border collaboration. Furthermore, we call for greater international cooperation to underpin effective regulatory frameworks to address the growing hazard of plastic nurdle pollution worldwide.

Microplastic leachates inhibit small-scale self-organization in mussel beds

Self-organized spatial patterns are increasingly recognized for their contribution to ecosystem functioning. They can improve the ecosystem's ability to respond to perturbation and thus increase its resilience to environmental stress. Plastic pollution has now emerged as major threat to aquatic and terrestrial biota. Under laboratory conditions, we tested whether plastic leachates from pellets collected in the intertidal can impair small-scale, spatial self-organization and byssal threads production of intertidal mussels and whether the effect varied depending on where the pellets come from. Specifically, leachates originating from plastic pellets collected from relatively pristine and polluted areas respectively impaired and inhibited the ability of mussels to self-organize at small-scale and to produce byssal threads compared to control conditions (i.e., seawater without leaching solution). Limitations to natural self-organizing processes and threads formation may translate to a declined capacity of natural ecosystems to avoid tipping points and to a reduced restoration success of disturbed ecosystems.

Maritime disasters and pollution: X-Press Pearl maritime debacle

Ocean ecosystems and global well-being are connected and significant. Over the past few decades, shipping accidents have caused severe marine pollution all over the world, and after a lull during the hike of COVID pandemic, polluting events are again on the rise. Marine pollution caused by maritime accidents requires a clear understanding of the fate of spilled pollutants, post-disaster challenges, pollutant removal strategies, and mitigation strategies against environmental damage. Considering proactive prevention is always better than reactive response, while understanding accidents and ensuring corrective action is even more important. This Special Issue provides a broad overview of the marine and coastal pollution, not limited to, but focused on the 2021 X-Press Pearl containership disaster off the coast of Sri Lanka, and the impact on the marine environment. Topics address the most unprecedented nurdle and pyroplastic spill and subsequent oil spillage of the X-Press Pearl, causes and consequences of polluting ship disasters, novel oil pollution mitigation approaches, needfulness of post-disaster environmental assessment plans, future requirements for ecosystem restoration and environmental management of shipping, and other aspects of coastal pollution that are timely to consider unprecedented pressures, which marine environments are now subjected to.

Voyaging of halogenated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, an emerging group of pollutants, on micro-mesoplastics in the marine environment

The limited existing research on the accumulation of hazardous chlorinated and brominated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (ClPAHs and BrPAHs) in micro-mesoplastics (mMPs) motivated this investigation. We collected mMPs from the coastal environments of Sri Lanka and Japan. Out of 75 target compounds analyzed, 61 were detected, with total parent PAH concentrations reaching 16,300 and 1770 ng/g plastic in Sri Lanka and Japan, respectively. The total parent PAH concentrations in mMPs from the southern Sri Lankan coastline were relatively higher than those from the eastern coastline. Phenanthrene and naphthalene were the dominant parent PAH congeners in most mMP samples. Chlorinated pyrenes and brominated naphthalene were predominant among halogenated PAHs. The estimated toxic equivalency quotient (TEQ) ranged from 0.67 to 1057 ng-TEQ/g plastic, with the highest levels observed in polystyrene (PS) particles from the southern Sri Lankan coast. Benzo[a]pyrene and dibenzo[a,h]anthracene exhibited elevated TEQ for parent PAHs, whereas dichloropyrene, and dibromopyrene represented the highest TEQs for ClPAHs and BrPAHs, respectively. The data evidenced that several HPAH congeners can increase the PAH-like toxicity (∼86%) in mMPs. This study provides insights into the accumulation of parent and halogenated PAHs in mMPs, highlighting their potential combined implications in marine and terrestrial ecosystems.

Fire and Oil Led to Complex Mixtures of PAHs on Burnt and Unburnt Plastic during the M/V X-Press Pearl Disaster

In May 2021, the M/V X-Press Pearl container ship burned for 2 weeks, leading to the largest maritime spill of resin pellets (nurdles). The disaster was exacerbated by the leakage of other cargo and the ship's underway fuel. This disaster affords the unique opportunity to study a time-stamped, geolocated release of plastic under real-world conditions. Field samples collected from beaches in Sri Lanka nearest to the ship comprised nurdles exposed to heat and combustion, burnt plastic pieces (pyroplastic), and oil-plastic agglomerates (petroplastic). An unresolved question is whether the 1600+ tons of spilled and recovered plastic should be considered hazardous waste. Due to the known formation and toxicity of combustion-derived polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), we measured 20 parent and 21 alkylated PAHs associated with several types of spilled plastic. The maximum PAH content of the sampled pyroplastic had the greatest amount of PAHs recorded for marine plastic debris (199,000 ng/g). In contrast, the sampled unburnt white nurdles had two orders of magnitude less PAH content. The PAH composition varied between the types of spilled plastic and presented features typical of and conflicting with petrogenic and pyrogenic sources. Nevertheless, specific markers and compositional changes for burning plastics were identified, revealing that the fire was the main source of PAHs. Eight months after the spill, the PAH contents of sampled stray nurdles and pyroplastic were reduced by more than 50%. Due to their PAH content exceeding levels allowable for plastic consumer goods, classifying burnt plastic as hazardous waste may be warranted. Following a largely successful cleanup, we recommend that the Sri Lankans re-evaluate the identification, handling, and disposal of the plastic debris collected from beaches and the potential exposure of responders and the public to PAHs from handling it. The maritime disaster underscores pyroplastic as a type of plastic pollution that has yet to be fully explored, despite the pervasiveness of intentional and unintentional burning of plastic globally.

We need to plan streamlined environmental impact assessment for the future X-Press Pearl disasters

The X-Press Pearl disaster illustrates the urgent needs for streamlined environmental impact assessment to inform decision making. The environmental contamination caused by the disaster is complex, and the biological impact of different environmental stressors, and at different biological scales, needs to be determined. Traditional methods for analyzing complex environmental stressors are often inefficient and do not reflect the biological impact of pollution. The combination of chemical stressors and biological impacts is the key to environmental impact assessment based on integrated monitoring. Whole-cell bioreporters are tools for rapid, efficient and quantitative detection of the bioavailability, stressor effects, and toxicity of pollutants, i.e., spanning a wide range of applications. Here we propose the view that using whole-cell bioreporter technology to streamline short-term environmental impact assessment for maritime disasters such as the X-Press Pearl is more fit-for-purpose/practical than other approaches in use.