ECOLOGICAL DISASTER

Sri Lanka Ship Fire Sparks Fears of Marine Disaster as Turtles, Dolphins and Even a Whale Wash Up on Shore

At least 100 turtles, a dozen dolphins, and a whale have washed up on shore after the container ship fire off Sri Lanka, but ecologists fear that’s only the beginning.

Ecologists say a fire aboard a container ship carrying hazardous chemicals off Sri Lanka has caused a major marine disaster. At least 100 dead turtles, a dozen dolphins, and even a blue whale have washed up ashore since the fire started aboard the Singapore-flagged X-Press Pearl on May 20. The Associated Press said that 81 of 1,500 containers on the ship held dangerous chemicals. The ship burned for 12 days off the Sri Lankan capital Colombo and dead animals began appearing several days into the blaze. A government official said postmortems were being carried out on the dead animals but confirmed “provisionally” that both the fire and leaked chemicals were to blame. Debris from the ship, including tons of plastic pellets, have polluted Sri Lanka’s normally pristine beaches. Lalith Ekanayake, a marine ecologist, told the AP that he thought “at least 400 turtles may have died and their carcasses may have sunk in the sea or drifted to the deep sea.”