Nurdles are 2mm to 5mm sized pre-production plastic pellets which have the shape of a lentil or pea. They are considered as microplastics due to being less than 5mm in size and are the building blocks used to manufacture all kinds of plastic products from bottles to toys to computers and even car components. As ‘cute’ as the name may sound, Nurdles are far from being harmless to our planet. They are the second most polluting type of microplastics found in our environment.
Nurdles are formed from fossil fuels. Creating and transporting them emits greenhouse gases. Further, spillage during stages of the plastic production process such as at production sites, during transportation and at manufacturing stages lead to them ending up in drains or waterways and finally in the ocean. This causes severe harm to wildlife as well as to humans. Shipping these small pellets across the ocean can also lead to spilling in larger volumes if the packages and containers on board the vessels are not tightly secured.
In 2021, Sri Lanka went through what the UN classified as Sri Lanka’s “worst maritime disaster”, where we saw 1680 tonnes of nurdles spill into the ocean from the X-Press Pearl shipwreck. According to the UN, this was the largest plastic spill in history. As easy as it may be to transport these small pellets, it is very difficult to remove once they have spilled into the ocean. Not only is it not retrievable due to its small size but the ocean currents can carry them to far away locations.
Nurdle leakages in the environment have become a huge threat to wildlife where many fish, marine animals and seabirds mistake the pellets for food. Due to the shape, size and colour of the nurdles they could easily pass off as fish eggs to animals. Consuming them make these animals feel full once they are trapped inside the animals’ stomachs where they end up starving to death. Since these plastic pellets are created from fossil fuels there is a higher chance for toxic chemicals to also transfer to the animals who consume them. This is detrimental not only to wildlife but to humans as well since chemicals enter the food chain. These pellets could also change certain characteristics of sand such as the temperature and permeability which could have a negative impact on animals like sea turtles who lay their eggs on beaches.
Microplastics such as nurdles are becoming a major concern worldwide since there is no practical solution to remove them from the ocean compared to bigger plastic items such as plastic bags bottles, nets etc. As much as beach cleanup events could help to remove nurdles from our beaches, action should be taken to stop nurdle pollution at the source itself. Most of the pollution occurs due to negligence and ignorance in producing, packaging, and transporting them. The X-Press Pearl disaster is a good example for this. To avoid such a disaster happening in the future and to protect our environment from microplastics, the industries that produce and use nurdles should be held responsible at all costs
Mariculture, commonly known as marine farming, is a specialised subset of aquaculture, that is practiced in seawater habitats and lagoons as opposed to in freshwater aquaculture. Fish like sea bream, cod, halibut, and sea bass are examples of products cultivated through mariculture. It accounts for about 40% of the world’s aquaculture production.
From the shallow seagrass beds of the Indian Ocean, and vivid reefs of coral triangle to sandy coasts of the Eastern Pacific, seven different species of sea turtles swim through our ocean waters. Today Sea turtles are being completely erased from some parts of the planet and pushed to the verge of extinction. Nearly all seven existing species of sea turtles are now classified as endangered, with three of them being critically endangered.
In recent times, the planet’s temperatures have been rising at an alarming rate, which imposes a threat to mankind.
