Contamination and distribution of buried microplastics in Sarakkuwa beach ensuing the MV X-Press Pearl maritime disaster in Sri Lankan sea

Sewwandi, Madushika; Amarathunga, A.A.D.; Wijesekara, Hasintha; Mahatantila, Kushani; Vithanage, Meththika

Contamination and distribution of buried microplastics in Sarakkuwa beach ensuing the MV X-Press Pearl maritime disaster in Sri Lankan sea

2022

Sewwandi, Madushika | Amarathunga, A.A.D. | Wijesekara, Hasintha | Mahatantila, Kushani | Vithanage, Meththika

Abundance of buried microplastics in sand profiles and pellet pollution index at Sarakkuwa beach, at west-coast of Sri Lanka was studied as a case study due to the receival of plastic nurdles and debris from the MV X-Press Pearl ship disaster in May 2021. Sand collected at 7 locations to a depth of 2 m in different depths for a beach segment of 200 × 25 m² during October 2021 and sand samples obtained from beach surface during March 2020 from the same location were analyzed for microplastics. Beach was contaminated with 2–5 mm sized partially pyrolyzed LDPE fragments and nurdles demonstrating a peak abundance of 13.3702 g/kg and1 mm-500 μm sized LDPE fragments up to 2.0 m depth. High concentrations of Mo and Cr were observed in the sand collected in 2021. Sarakkuwa beach is critically polluted by nurdles, partially pyrolyzed microplastics, and toxic elements from ship disaster.

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