One of the worst spills occurred off Sri Lanka in 2021 when thousands of tonnes of plastic pellets were lost from a stricken cargo ship.

Nurdles coated an 80-kilometre (50-mile) stretch of beach on the island’s western coast, and fishing was prohibited for months.

Huh. I hadn’t followed that when it happened.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-Press_Pearl

According to a 2021 United Nations report, it was the largest recorded plastic spill, releasing about 70–75 billion nurdles that take centuries to degrade.[11]

https://www.shippingandfreightresource.com/the-carriage-of-nurdles-by-sea-packaging-requirements-to-be-regulated/