On Sunday, Sri Lanka launched a criminal probe into a massive container ship fire that has deluged the Colombo beach with plastic pollution in an unprecedented marine disaster. Tonnes of micro-plastic granules inundated Sri Lanka’s beaches. Thousands of navy personnel, using mechanical diggers, have already scooped tonnes of tiny plastic waste off the beaches. Fishermen have been banned from the 80-kilometer (50-mile) stretch of coast where the pellets have washed up.
The MV X-Press Pearl caught fire as it waited to enter Colombo harbor and remains anchored just outside the port. The 25-member crew was evacuated. The vessel was en route from the Indian port of Hazira to Singapore, with 1,486 containers, most of them carrying chemicals. According to officials, much of the ship’s cargo, including 25 tonnes of nitric acid, sodium hydroxide, lubricants, and other chemicals, appears to have been destroyed in the fire. Authorities believe the fire was caused by a nitric acid leak that the crew had been aware of since May 11.
After a complaint lodged by Sri Lanka’s Marine Environment Protection Authority (MEPA), the 25-member crew will be questioned on Monday. Ajith Rohana, a police spokesperson said: “The captain and the crew were in quarantine, but health authorities have told us that we can question them from Monday. We have already sent samples of polluted seawater and burnt debris from the vessel for a forensic report.”
Sri Lanka’s Marine Protection Authority said the plastic waste from the burning ship had probably caused “the worst beach pollution in our history”, and warned it could cause years of ecological damage.
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