MSC ELSA 3 Sparks along the coast

From the edge of the waterline on the sightseeing grove beach of Kovalam, a irregular line of volunteers increases the sand to the shallow pit.

The dirty seawater crosses the tank in a line with a cross of about eight feet and blue torpulin. The water collected in small buckets passes through the line and is put into the pit.

Somewhere else on the beach, the inauspicious monsoon spreads under the sky, more men and women use normal home appliances such as long -handed floor wipes and brushes to the brush painfully.

A volunteer pointing to a pit filled with water explains, “Since the easiest way is to separate the pellets from water and sand.” “But this is going to be a long process because many more jowar keep coming with,” he believes.

For the past several days, this strange vision has become regular for the beaches across the Thiruvananthapuram district as community volunteers try to scoop small plastic pellets with sand. The district of pellets, also known as Nurdals, has washed the ash on the southern coast after the sinking of the Liberia-Flagged container ship MSc Elsa 3 From Kochi on 25 May.

Within the days of the accident, the pellets, every barely 2 mm to 3 mm size, have attacked every nook and cranny on the coast. It looks like a splash of white paint on the sand from a distance.

In the last five days, volunteers on Grove Beach alone have collected and packed two containers of Nurdals, spending around seven hours a day on backbracking work.

Aapda Mitra Community Volunteers are employed by the Gujarat-based Marine Emergency Response Center (MER), which is assigned by the ship owners with onshore disposal of cargo owners under the conditions set by Kerala State Disaster Management Authority (KSDMA).

On nearby air beach (between Eve), a large tourist draw in Kovalam, attracts staring eager from a uniform clean-up drive visitors. “I didn’t know what they were,” said a housewife from Bihar, Natn Kumari, because she keeps an attentive eye on her son, which is engrossed in scooping the sand with a toy cup-and-tad set.

The footfall on the beach is relatively low at this time of the year as it is an off-season for tourists. Armed with buckets and brushes, volunteers have spread to the beach, push out the pellets from loose sand. It is hard work, and the rainy season does not make it easy. Here, a water -filled pit is used to separate the pellets from the sand.

However, it is also easy to see how Nurdals, yellow white and so small that they are closely close to the coast. Although it is not naturally toxic, its small size, bounce, and similarity of fish eggs make nurdals an invisible and dangerous pollutants, when they enter the sea.

For example, unheard visitors can easily take them with mud and sand on their shoes. There have also been complaints of unbreakable bags of pellets found in the lower reach of the Nayyar River, perhaps reach there through the mouth with the tide.

Nural spills from the ship have been only one, one important one, Kerala’s environmental concerns are one important since MSc Elsa 3. On the way to Kochi, laden with 643 containers, the vessel, some of the 14.6 knots from the coast began to list it dangerously, dislikes the score of the containers, including several suspected dangerous cargoes, in the sea.

As of June 15, 61 containers have been recovered from Kerala coast, according to the seat on the accident by the Directorate General of Shipping on 15 June. The shipping disaster has spoiled the troubles of the Fisher community of the district during the South -West monsoon season.

Now for decades, the Fisher community here has been struggling with coastal erosion and is damaging the work due to bad weather, says Valerian Isaac, a 58 -year -old fisherman of Ainthuthngue. “Now, the ship’s dangerous cargo has also hit the sale of fish for fear of being mixed with seawater,” says Isaac. Wrecks from the ship, including pellets, have washed ashes at many places along the coast. Jowar keeps them inside and out, “Isaac says.

Shortly after the Nural Spill, the Marine Monitoring Laboratory under the Department of Aquarius Biology and Fisheries, Kerala University described it as the first major event of plastic noral landing in India due to a ship. ”

Small granules made of materials such as polyethylene or polyvinyl chloride, or pre-production plastic, are base materials for other plastic products. As a pill, they are easy to transport, and every year, millions of tons are sent worldwide. Undexes, these pellets pose a threat to marine organisms, including fish, as they can cause intestinal obstruction. Over time, they can break into even tinier pieces, enter food chains and human diets, A. Biju Kumar, the Vice Chancellor of the Fisheries and Ocean Studies (Kufos) of the University of Kerala, says.

And Nurdals keep coming, connecting concerns about plastic pollution and effective strategies to deal with it. The danger has killed all the coastline from the coasts of Kerala to Kanyakumari and Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu.

According to the assessment of the Director General of its constant recurrence shipping with Shortin, the ongoing environmental concern presents. While clean-up operations are moving forward, fresh deposits require continuous manpower to prevent secondary pollution. About 65 tonnes of nurses are collected from the affected coastline, it says.

KSDMA Member Secretary Sekhar L. Kuriakos feels that the work of cleaning the Nurdals is going to be a time -consuming process, which is looking at the magnitude of the spread. “There is going to be a long-term exercise to remove nurdals, which may take at least one year to complete. If the Sri Lankan Nural Spill experience after the MV X-Perl cargo ship accident in 2021 can be anything, it can be taken for five years,” Kuarakas said.

Back-to-back ship accidents and harsh monsoon weather effects have barely hit the state. MSc Elsa 3 The fire broke out after the accident, which destroyed the Singapore-Flagged Wan 503 after the explosion on a ship. A fire accident was reported north of the Bipore coast. Accidents occurred for the most time for the state, which wants to expand its marine horizon with a recently commissioned international port in Visinjam, Thiruvananthapuram.

Harryless, as they may seem at first glance, plastic pellets, in fact, reduce longer and multidimensional effects, experts explain.

In the form of pellets, act as toxic sponges, which follow dangerous substances such as heavy metals, antibiotics, frequent organic pollutants, microbial contaminants, and other emerging pollutants of the surrounding environment, S. Bijoy Nandan, Dean, Faculty of Marine Sciences, Faculty of Marine Sciences in Science and Technology.

“Once swallowed by marine organisms, they act as contaminated nurd vectors, which offer toxins in the food web over time. Over time, these pollutants can do biochemulat and biomegnosis in higher trophic levels, including humans, including humans, potentially important physical and biochemical works, including humans, are interrupted”. Nandon explains.

In addition, in both the water columns and seabed, nurdals can tie up with organic materials and become a pseudo-food source for zoplakton, fishes, crustaceans and mollusks, facilitating their entry into the seafood web and capable of comprehensive trophic transfer to the ecosystems.

Anu Gopinath, Professor and Principal, Department of Aquarius Environment Management, Kufos, share similar concerns. “Right now, everyone is concerned about the impact on microplastic pollution and fish resources. True, it is a major concern, especially for pelgic fishes, as the pellets in the sea can still be deposited in different depth areas. Gopinath.

In addition, a real picture of the nural spill emerges only when the rain decreases and the weather sits accordingly. Dr. Gopinath also underlines the need for observation along the entire Kerala coast, as seasonal changes in the sea streams can lead the pellets far away.

Marine Life (FML) friends, a Thiruvananthapuram-based NGO, who is working on marine biodiversity research, recently demonstrated the challenges facing Kerala due to twin shipping disasters at the United Nations Ocean Conference in France.

Robert Panipila and fellow researcher Kumar Sahayaraju urged the United Nations to urge to establish and implement international rules controlling sea transport of chemical and plastic pollutants.

“Environmental disasters can be prevented to a significant level through strong, applied laws and corporate accountability. Recently disasters underline Kerala’s requirement, a standard operating process related to marine emergency conditions,” Penipilla seems to be.

Local self -government institutions and coastal communities need to be taken into confidence to address related issues and challenges, they feel.

“In addition, the public attention is broadly focused on the items that remain on the sea. The waste from the debris must have settled on the underwater sea habitats,” he said.

Kerala Swatantra Matsya Thojilly Federation has expressed concern over the speed on which the pellets are cleaning and removing the containers. The state president Federation said, “The effects of the accident first hit the fishing community. People are reluctant to buy fish, fearing that they may be contaminated. Steps should be taken to reduce fear and rapid recovery of all containers.”

The fishermen of the state, which was the brunt of the monsoon fury, now have another reason for being worried. Nurdals. Small granules have hit their lives in a big way, even harder than violent waves.