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Maritime disasters and pollution: X-Press Pearl maritime debacle.
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This paper reviews the marine pollution consequences of the X-Press Pearl shipping disaster, which released thousands of tons of plastic pellets and chemicals into Sri Lankan waters in 2021. The incident highlights how maritime accidents can cause sudden, large-scale microplastic contamination events and underscores the need for better prevention, response, and international coordination.
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.
More Papers Like This
Unprecedented marine microplastic contamination from the X-Press Pearl container vessel disaster
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Coastal pollution was assessed following the MV X-Press Pearl container ship disaster off Sri Lanka, which was described as the worst maritime accident involving chemicals and plastics and released massive quantities of plastic nurdles onto beaches. Field sampling documented extensive nurdle contamination and associated toxic element accumulation along the coastline.
Marine pollution after the MV X-Press Pearl maritime disaster: Societal impacts based on research outcomes
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Following the 2021 MV X-Press Pearl container ship fire in Sri Lanka, researchers synthesized findings on the release of plastic pellets and microplastics into the Indian Ocean and assessed the broader social impacts, including public awareness campaigns and policy changes in plastic waste management. The disaster illustrates how a single maritime incident can contaminate vast ocean areas and catalyze regulatory change around microplastic pollution.
Cross-Shore Microplastic Accumulation on Sri Lanka’s West Coast One Year After the Catastrophic X-Press Pearl Pollution Event
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Researchers conducted a detailed survey of microplastic pellet contamination along Sri Lanka's west coast one year after the catastrophic X-Press Pearl container ship disaster, which released an estimated 50 billion plastic pellets. They found that pellets were still widely present in beach sediments, with some locations showing very high densities. The study demonstrates that a single marine pollution event can result in persistent, long-term microplastic contamination of coastal environments.
X‐Press Pearl Disaster
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This paper documents the environmental impact of the MV X-Press Pearl container ship disaster off Sri Lanka in 2021, which released 25 tonnes of nitric acid and contaminated the coast with plastic nurdles and burned plastic debris. The event caused extensive harm to coral reefs, beach ecosystems, and fisheries along the western Sri Lankan coast.
Formation of secondary microplastics during degradation of plastics originating from the MV X-Press Pearl maritime disaster
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Researchers studied beach sediment along Sri Lanka's coast after the 2021 MV X-Press Pearl container ship fire and found that roughly 1,680 tonnes of plastic pellets rapidly degraded into secondary microplastics within 6–8 days due to intense heat and chemical exposure. These lightweight plastic fragments — mainly polyethylene types — are now dispersing across the Indian Ocean, highlighting how maritime disasters can rapidly escalate microplastic pollution on a global scale.
Research digests by email
When a large batch of papers lands in the Atlas, we read through it and send a short write-up of what stood out.