{"id":94082,"date":"2022-04-21T11:45:52","date_gmt":"2022-04-21T06:15:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/?post_type=samudra&p=94082"},"modified":"2022-04-21T11:45:52","modified_gmt":"2022-04-21T06:15:52","slug":"the-rage-of-a-perfect-storm","status":"publish","type":"samudra","link":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/samudra\/the-rage-of-a-perfect-storm\/","title":{"rendered":"The Rage of a Perfect Storm"},"content":{"rendered":"
Months after a container ship carrying toxic chemicals caught fire off the west coast of Sri Lanka, fisherfolk still suffer from the dreadful aftereffects of the country\u2019s worst marine ecological disaster<\/strong><\/p>\n This article is by Oscar Amarasinghem <\/strong>(oamarasinghe@yahoo.com), chancellor of the Ocean University of Sri Lanka, and president of the Sri Lanka Forum for Small Scale Fisheries (SLFSSF)<\/p>\n A 186-m-long container ship called X-Press Pearl, registered in Singapore, arrived in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on the night of 19 May 2021, carrying 1,486 containers. The next day, it was reported that the ship caught fire. At that time, it was located 9.5 nautical miles northwest of the Colombo port. Five days later, a large explosion occurred inside the vessel; by late afternoon, containers were dropping off the vessel into the sea. On 2 June, the ship finally sank.<\/p>\n The incident was deemed the worst marine ecological disaster in Sri Lankan history. The ship\u2019s cargo included, among others, 12,085 metric tonnes (MT) of plastics and polymers, 8,252 MT of chemicals and 3,081 MT of metals. After the ship caught fire, its debris, burnt goods and plastic pellets washed ashore in large quantities. Dead fish, turtles, whales and dolphins were found along the western coast. Fish appeared with plastic pellets trapped in their gills. Initially noticed along the coast of Negombo, ship debris, and dead fish and turtles, washed up in other locations hundreds of kilometres to the north and south, indicating the widespread nature of the damage.<\/p>\n Blindsided<\/strong><\/p>\n A day after the ship caught fire, the Department of Fisheries banned fishing in the coastal strip between Kalutara district and Negombo district. The disaster affected 12,731 fishers engaged on 4,612 coastal craft\u2014both skippers and crew. Apart from those directly involved in fishing, this event also afflicted large numbers of stakeholders in the fisheries value chain, including those in ancillary services. Overall, 63,563 people have been affected by the accident, based on calculations by civil society organizations.<\/p>\n
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