Web application to collect, track shipwrecks

The State Disaster Management Authority has developed a web application for collecting and tracking debris and related information linked to shipwrecks that occurred off the coast of Kerala, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said.
Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, he said the web application would collect information, including the name of the person who found the object, mobile number, basic information about the object found, live location where the object was seen or the nearest landmark, and images.
As of Wednesday morning, 65 containers had been found along the coast of Kerala in connection with the shipwreck. All the containers have been transferred to various ports. He said 21 barrels found in the Vizhinjam and Kovalam areas of Thiruvananthapuram have been moved to safe locations at the Vizhinjam port.
Two barrels suspected to be related to ship accidents have washed ashore in Alappad in Kollam and Kumbala Koipady in Kasaragod.
The Singapore-flagged MV Wan Hai 503 that caught fire off the coast of Kerala has currently been moved to 57 nautical miles off the Kerala coast. Work is under way to tow the ship further away, although reports indicate that the ship continues to emit fire and smoke.
The containers that have fallen from the ship are likely to land in the southern part of Ernakulam and on the coasts of Alappuzha and Kollam in the coming days.
In such a situation, if any suspected objects are found on the beach, people should not touch them and stay at least 200 metres from them. Also, the State Disaster Management Authority should immediately be alerted about the incident by dialling 112, he said.

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For decades now, the fisher community here has been battling coastal erosion and the loss of work on account of inclement weather, says Valerian Isaac, a 58-year-old fisherman from Anchuthengu. 'Now, the fear that dangerous cargo from the ship may have mixed up with the seawater has hit fish sales as well. Atop this, debris from the ship, including the pellets, have washed ashore in multiple locations along the coast. The tides keep carrying them in and out,' Isaac says. Shortly after the nurdle spill, the Marine Monitoring Lab under the Department of Aquatic Biology and Fisheries, University of Kerala, described it as the 'first major incident of plastic nurdle landings in India caused by a shipwreck.' The tiny granules, or pre-production plastics made from materials such as polyethylene or polyvinyl chloride, are the base material for other plastic products. In pellet form, they are easy to transport, and every year, millions of tonnes get shipped across the globe. 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Kuriakose, Member Secretary, KSDMA, feels that the task of clearing the nurdles is going to be a time-consuming process, given the magnitude of the dispersal. 'The removal of nurdles is going to be a long-term exercise, which may take at least a year-and-a-half to complete. If the experience of the Sri Lankan nurdle spill following the MV X-Press Pearl cargo ship accident in 2021 is anything to go by, it could even take up to five years,' says Kuriakose. The back-to-back ship accidents and the impacts of the harsh monsoon season have hit the State hard. The MSC Elsa 3 accident was followed by the fire that destroyed the Singapore-flagged Wan Hai 503 following an onboard explosion. The fire accident was reported further north off the Beypore coast. The accidents occurred at a most inopportune moment for the State, which is looking to expand its maritime horizons with the recently commissioned International Seaport at Vizhinjam in Thiruvananthapuram. Harmless as they may seem at first glance, the plastic pellets, in reality, pose long-term and multidimensional impacts, experts point out. The pellets function as toxic sponges adsorbing hazardous substances such as heavy metals, antibiotics, persistent organic pollutants, microbial contaminants, and other emerging pollutants from the surrounding environment, says S. Bijoy Nandan, Dean, Faculty of Marine Sciences, at the Cochin University of Science and Technology. 'Once ingested by marine organisms, these contaminated nurdles act as vectors, introducing toxins into the food web. Over time, these pollutants can bioaccumulate and biomagnify in higher trophic levels, including humans, potentially disrupting vital physiological and biochemical functions,' explains Dr. Nandan. Furthermore, in both the water column and seabed, nurdles can bind with organic matter and can become a pseudo-food source for zooplankton, fishes, crustaceans and molluscs, facilitating their entry into the marine food web and enabling widespread trophic transfer across ecosystems, he says. Anu Gopinath, Professor and Head, Department of Aquatic Environment Management, KUFOS, shares similar concerns. 'Right now, everyone is worried about the microplastic pollution and the impact on fish resources. True, it is a major concern, especially for pelagic fishes as the pellets still in the ocean could have accumulated at different depth zones. But we also have to take into consideration long-term effects such as airborne contamination once these lightweight pellets break up into even tinier, nano granules. At nano sizes their detection turns problematic,' says Dr. Gopinath. Moreover, a real picture of the nurdle spill will emerge only when the rain subsides and the weather settles, according to her. Dr. Gopinath also underscores the need for observation along the entire Kerala coast, as seasonal shifts in ocean currents could carry the pellets far and wide. Friends of Marine Life (FML), a Thiruvananthapuram-based NGO working on marine biodiversity research, recently showcased the challenges confronting Kerala on account of the twin shipping disasters at the United Nations Ocean Conference in France. Robert Panipilla and fellow researcher Kumar Sahayaraju urged the United Nations to establish and enforce international regulations governing the maritime transport of chemical and plastic pollutants. 'Environmental disasters can be prevented to a considerable level through strong, enforceable laws and corporate accountability. The recent disasters underscore the need for Kerala to have a standard operating procedure concerning maritime emergencies,' feels Panipilla. Local self-government institutions and coastal communities need to be taken into confidence for addressing related issues and challenges, he feels. 'Moreover, public attention has largely concentrated on objects that have remained afloat on the sea. Wastes from the wreck would also have settled on underwater marine habitats,' he cautions. The Kerala Swatantra Matsya Thozhilali Federation has expressed concern over the pace at which the clean-up of the pellets and the removal of containers is taking place. 'The impacts of the accident hit the fishing community first. People are reluctant to buy fish, fearing that they may be contaminated. Steps should be taken to alleviate the fear and speedy recovery of all the containers,' says Jackson Pollayil, State president the federation. The fishers of the State, who were bearing the brunt of the monsoon fury, have now one more reason to be worried about. The nurdles. The tiny granules have hit their lives in a big way, even harder than the violent waves.