MARINE POLLUTION
By
Dr. P. SURESHKUMAR,
M. Sc., M. Phil., Ph.D., M.B.A.,
Assistant Professor in Environmental Sciences
Faculty of Marine Sciences
Annamalai University
Parangipettai-608 502
Mob. 8903041579
[email protected]
Marine pollution
Definition
"Introduction of man, directly or indirectly, of substances or
energy into the marine environment (including estuaries)
resulting in such deleterious effects as harm to living resources,
hazard to human health, hindrance to marine activities including
fishing, impairment of quality for use of sea-water, and reduction
of amenities.” – GESAMP
Contd..
Marine pollution
General impacts
Impacts on living resources
Hazards to human health
Hindrance to marine activities
Impairment of quality of seawater
Reduction of amenities
Loss of aesthetic beauty
Impacts on the sensitive habitats
Sources of pollution
Land-based sources
Agricultural run-off
Municipal and industrial wastes
Sea-based sources
Oceanic dumping
Offshore oil spills
Contd..
Point and Non-Point Sources
Point source – refers to a single identifiable source of pollutants eg.
effluent outfall
Non-point source – refers to diffuse source of pollutants eg. Acid rain,
dust storms POINT
SOURCES
Rural homes
NONPOINT SOURCES
Cropland
Animal feedlot
Urban streets
Factory
Suburban
development
Wastewater
treatment
plant
Types of pollution
Discrete vs. Chronic Pollution
Discrete (short term) – eg. an oil spill, the effects of which
diminish with time
Chronic (long term) – eg. nutrient input, effluent discharge
Types of pollution Contd..
Oil
(Petroleum
hydrocarbons)
Eutrophication
Metals
Conservative
Halogenated
Pollution
hydrocarbons
Thermal
Radioactive
Litter &
Plastic debris
Oil pollution
Oil pollution is mostly used to
describe marine oil spills, where oil
is released into the ocean or coastal
waters.
Oil spills are due to the following:
crude oil from tankers
offshore platforms
drilling rigs and wells
spills of refined petroleum
products (such as gasoline, diesel)
spill of any oily refuse or waste
oil
Oil pollution Contd..
Sources
Source: UNEP
Exxon Valdez Oil Spill
– March 29, 1989
• Almost 44
million liters
(11.6 million
gallons) of oil
spilled into
Prince William
Sound, AK
World’s Largest Oil Spills
Oil pollution Contd..
Fate
When oil is spilled on sea it spreads
over the surface to form a thin film
– called oil slick
Light oil spreads faster than heavy
wax oil
Low molecular weight fractions
evaporate
Water soluble components dissolve
Non-water soluble components
emulsify and forms a viscous mass
– “chocolate mousse”
Heavy residues form tar balls
Oil pollution Contd..
Fate
Tar balls
Chocolate mousse
Oil pollution Contd..
Impacts
Effects – Impairment of marine life
Plankton, esp. neuston at highest
risk – exposed to water soluble
components leaching from oil
Fixed vegetation –Sea grass beds–
killed or flowering inhibited
In Mangroves – lenticels clogged
with oil oxygen level in sediments
drops – death
Sea birds –buoyancy and thermal
insulation lost
Oil Spills
1. Oil spills have huge and immediate economic, social, and environmental impacts.
2. Local people lose their livelihoods as fisheries and tourism areas are temporarily closed; the
clean up costs are enormous; and tens of thousands of marine animals and plants are killed or
harmed.
3. And the damage goes on. The chemicals used to break up the oil can be toxic, and it's
impossible to remove all the spilled oil. Even after an area has been cleaned up, it can take a
decade or more to fully recover.
4. There's also the problem of the oil that goes down with the ship, which can contaminate the
seabed and marine organisms.
5. This oil can also resurface. In 2001, a cyclone off the island of Yap in Micronesia disturbed the oil
tanker USS Mississinewa, which was sunk during World War II. For two months, thousands of liters
of oil and gasoline leaked out of the rusted ship wreck onto the beaches of the atoll, stopping the
700 islanders from fishing. There are hundreds of other shipwrecked tankers around the world.
Back to Polluted by toxins
Impacts of Exxon …..
Eutrophication
“The enrichment of water by nutrients,
especially nitrogen and/or phosphorus,
causing an accelerated growth of algae
and higher forms of plant life to produce
an undesirable disturbance to the balance
of organisms present in the water and to
the quality of water concerned”
- OSPAR (Oslo/Paris convention for the Protection of the
Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic)
Contd..
Eutrophication
Sources
Wastewater effluent (municipal and
industrial)
Runoff and leachate from waste
disposal systems
Runoff from agriculture/irrigation
Runoff from pasture and range
Runoff from mines, oil fields,
unsewered industrial sites
Overflows of combined storm and
sanitary sewers
Untreated sewage
Contd..
Eutrophication
Impacts
Over-productivity
Reduction in phytoplankton
species diversity
Growth of harmful algal
blooms
Reduction in dissolved oxygen
content
Anoxia and mass mortalities of
marine organisms
Conservative pollutants - Metals
A heavy metal is a member of a loosely-defined subset of
elements that exhibit metallic properties.
It mainly includes the transition metals, some metalloids,
lanthanides, and actinides.
There is an alternative term for heavy metal and is called as
toxic metal
The major sources of metals are:
Natural sources
Manmade sources
Contd..
Conservative pollutants - Metals
Natural Sources
Erosion of ore-bearing rocks
Atmospheric inputs - wind blown
dust
Volcanic activity
Forest fires
Riverine inputs into oceans
Contd..
Conservative pollutants - Metals
Manmade Sources
Industrial discharge
Sewage
Re-suspension of sediments by dredging and trenching
Contd..
Conservative pollutants - Metals
World-wide emissions (Clark, 2001)
Metal Natural sources Anthropogenic
(in thousand sources
tonnes/year) (in thousand
tonnes/year)
Arsenic 12 18
Cadmium 1.3 7.6
Copper 28 35
Lead 12 332
Nickel 30 56
Zinc 45 132
Contd..
Conservative pollutants - Metals
Impacts
Arsenic (As)
Phytoplankton most sensitive & accumulate from water
column
Higher trophic levels accumulate via food.
Cadmium (Cd)
Divalent cadmium is more toxic
Tends to bioaccumulate
Lead (Pb)
Forms strong complex with clay and suspended material
Bioaccumulates in most marine organisms – no
significant problems.
Contd..
Conservative pollutants - Metals
An example of Mercury pollution in Minamata Bay, Japan (1953-1960)
Source
Pollution from plastic plant- dumped
mercuric chloride into the bay
Impact
Shellfishes contaminated with
mercury
People who consumed shellfish
severely affected
43 dead and 700 permanently
disabled
Bay is still unusable for fishing and
shell fishing
Bioaccumulation
Increase in concentration of a substance(s) in an organism or a
part of that organism
The affected organism has a higher concentration of the
substance than the concentration in the organism’s
surrounding environment
Not excreted or metabolised and failure of the target organ
Bioaccumulation
An example of bioaccumulation in Arabic Gulf
Biomagnification
Also called bioamplification
Increase in concentration of a substance in a food chain,
not an organism
Conservative pollutants –
Halogenated hydrocarbons
Hydrocarbons containing chlorine, fluorine, bromine or
iodine
Differs from petroleum hydrocarbons – not degraded by
chemical oxidation or by bacteria
Low molecular weight compounds
– eg., Dichloroethane, Freons etc.
High molecular weight compounds
– eg., DDT, Drins, PCBs
Contd..
Conservative pollutants –
Halogenated hydrocarbons
Sources
Aerial transport
Aerial spraying of pesticides as aerosols – travel great
distances
Freshwater inputs
Rain washing of pesticides carried into sea by rivers
Silt from flood
Direct inputs
By industrial outfalls – especially by Pesticide manufacturing
companies.
Contd..
Conservative pollutants –
Halogenated hydrocarbons
Impacts
Low solubility in water persist for long durations
Fat-soluble , so incorporated into the tissue of marine
organisms and sediments
Lethal to the animal
Possibility of transmission through food webs – established in
a number of animals
Thermal pollution
Thermal pollution is the degradation of water quality by any
process that changes ambient water temperature.
Outfall from Qurrayah power plant, Saudi Arabia
Contd..
Thermal pollution
Sources
Industrial wastewater
Power plant discharges
Desalination plant discharges
Urban runoff
Contd..
Thermal pollution
Impacts
Thermal shock
Decrease in dissolved oxygen
Increase in photosynthesis
Increase in metabolic rate of
fish
Increase in oxygen consumption
Radioactive pollution
Radioactive wastes are usually by-products of nuclear
power generation and other applications of research and
medicine.
Radioactive waste is hazardous to human health
Pollution due to radioactive wastes – Radioactive
pollution
Contd..
Radioactive pollution
Sources
Weapons testing – Testing of
nuclear weapons – when
exploded underwater release
fission products and isotopes
Liquid wastes – Discharge from
the cooling water of nuclear
reactors
Solid wastes – Dumping of
radioactive wastes in Sea (now
no longer practiced).
Contd..
Radioactive pollution
Impacts
Highly lethal - Even low doses causes fatal damage
Possibility of bioaccumulation – especially in algae and
bivalves
eg. Porphyra near a nuclear power plant location had
10 times more caesium-137 than in the surrounding
waters
Litter and Plastics pollution
Marine litter, is human created
waste that has deliberately or
accidentally become afloat in a
the sea or ocean.
It tends to accumulate at the
centre of gyres and on
coastlines, frequently washing
aground, when it is known as
beach litter or tidewrack.
Contd..
Litter and Plastics pollution
Sources
Up to 80% of the pollution is land-based.
A wide variety of anthropogenic artifacts can
become marine debris
Plastic Bags, Balloons, Buoys etc.
Contd..
Litter and Plastics pollution
Impacts
Many animals that live on or in the sea consume flotsam by
mistake, as it often looks similar to their natural prey
Blocks the passage of food and causing death through
starvation or infection.
Tiny floating particles also resemble zooplankton, which
can lead filter feeders to consume them and cause them to
enter the ocean food chain.
In samples taken from the North Pacific Gyre in 1999 by
the Algalita Marine Research Foundation, the mass of
plastic exceeded that of zooplankton by a factor of six.
Litter and Plastics pollution
Plastics
• Nurdles – small pre-
production plastic
pellets
• Found in ocean and
all beaches due to
spillage
– Orange County, CA –
98% of beach debris
are nurdles
Quick Facts about the Ocean
Our Planet is made up of 70%
water.
There Is
326,000,000,000,000,000,000
gallons (326 million trillion
gallons of water on the earth
96% of water on the earth is
ocean water
Fourteen billion pounds of
garbage, mostly plastic, is
dumped into the ocean every
year
Biological Pollution: Non-Native Species
• Originate elsewhere, introduced by humans
intentionally or accidentally
• Outcompete and dominate native populations
• Invasive species cause extensive damage annually
Biological Pollution – Non-Native Species
• Caulerpa taxifolia –
tropical sea weed
– Cold-tolerant clone
introduced to
Mediterranean,
overwhelmed ecosystem
– Also in Southern
California, Australia
Biological Pollution – Non-Native Species
• Zebra mussel
– Invaded Great Lakes of North America
– Drove out local mussels
– Altered ecology of freshwater lakes, streams
– Blocked water pipes of industrial facilities
Solution to pollution
Reduce input of toxic pollutants
Treat sewage primary, secondary and tertiary treatment
Ban dumping of wastes and raw sewage in the sea
Ban ocean dumping of sludge and hazardous dredged material
Protect sensitive areas from development, oil drilling, and oil
shipping
Regulate coastal development
• Be Responsible for Your Environment………
THANK YOU
