Plastic pellets from the distressed vessel MV X-Press Pearl are expected to move Eastwards along the South coast but more offshore by yesterday, Sri Lankan Marine Biologist Asha De Vos has revealed.
She said more pellets are expected to wash up on the beach between Negombo and Matara as the pellets currently trapped in the surf zone, which is the region between where waves break and the shoreline, will continue to get pushed inshore with the currents.
Asha De Vos further explained that it is possible that the particles travelling along the South coast will impact the East coast in a few weeks after passing the Sri Lanka dome, an eddy located to the East of Sri Lanka.
Several plastic pellets from the vessel had washed up on the shores of Sri Lanka after the ship caught fire off the coast of Colombo recently. (NewsWire)
Further particle modelling by Prof Charitha Pattiaratchi and Dr Sarath Wijeratne of the University of Western Australia Oceans Institute, give us a sense of where else these plastic pellets could go in the coming days. 1/ pic.twitter.com/MyKPe9jwtJ
— Oceanswell (@OceanswellOrg) May 31, 2021