Bryan’s takes part in an international team addressing the X-Press Pearl nurdle spill featured in Oceanus

In May 2021, the M/V X-Press Pearl containership caught fire and spilled >70 billion (>1500 tons) of preproduction plastic pellets also called nurdles littering the Sri Lankan coastline. An international team of marine biologist Asha de Vos, professor Lihini Aluwihare (UCSD), assistant professor Michelle DiBenedetto (UW), and a multidisciplinary team of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution scientists and engineers (Chris Reddy, Collin Ward, Anna Michel, Bob Nelson, Beckett Colson, Sarah Youngs, Anna Walsh, Mike Mazzotta, and Bryan James) assembled to provide actionable insight to the responders and Sri Lankan people about the spill. The team’s efforts were published on November 29, 2021 in ACS Environmental Au and are the feature of a new article in the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution publication Oceanus.