Read here about how humanity uses the
oceans as its bottomless waste dump to get rid of industrial, toxic, nuclear and other waste. The
oceans are wide, deep, dark and quiet, just perfect to load off all the rubbish we collect in our
civilized world. Not to forget that many of the beautiful dive destinations we visit (for example the
Maldives) or many of the dive boats we cruise around in keep clean by dumping the garbage right
out the back door. But as long as the divers don't have to swim in their own garbage, they can
always turn a blind eye. And then, there are these big oil tankers cruising around the globe so
busily, only that they have the nasty habit to break in two pieces when the captain is too drunk
or some malevolent reef gets in their way. Over the last couple of decades we've had some
heavy duty spills like the Amoco Cadiz or the Exxon Valdez, for example and thousands of little
spills day by day, be it on purpose or not. Find out a little more about our flair for dumping all sorts
of things into the water. But the topic also reminds me of a friend from New Zealand who I was
visiting in Australia a couple of years back. We watched the sun go down from a huge cliff
overlooking the ocean, knocking back a couple of beers, when suddenly, she tossed the empty
can into the rolling waves; we were both aghast. I, because she didn't dispose of it properly,
and she, because she could not understand what all the fuss was about. It was the way to do
it in the land of the Kiwis... |
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The problem of oceanic pollution largely starts in the major estuaries,
with chemicals and nutrients, largely agricultural runoff, causing eutrophication (a situation where the water is so rich in nutrients, that the algae
"chokes" the ecosystem to extinguish most life forms). The decaying algae in the Mississippi River, for example, has created a 4,000 sq. mile
"dead zone" off the coasts of Louisiana and Texas. The shellfish have been killed and the fish displaced from the otherwise rich environment
of the Gulf of Mexico! |
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| What you can do:
Speak out against companies and farmers using the rivers and estatuaries of your country as their pissing pot. |
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While oil spills grab the headlines, they account for only 5% of
the marine oil pollution. The majority of the contamination comes from automobile related sources, through the sewage system, as runoff and
in the form of acid rain. Each American city of 5 million people creates approximately 11 million gallons of oil pollution each year, about
the same as the spillage from the Exxon Valdez tanker off Alaska. Air pollution accounts for approximately one third of the toxic substances
that enter the ocean. While the figure is a surprise to most, it simply follows the fact that air pollution is widely dispersed and the major surface
area of the planet is the sea. Sources include cars, power plants, and industry. |
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| What you can do:
Take the bus or the train, ride your bycicle for a change, save electricity. |
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Sources of toxic substances contaminating the ocean range
from city sewage to agricultural and industrial runoff, and even significant nuclear substances. Thirty miles west of San Francisco 47,500
steel barrels containing plutonium, cessium, and mercury are scattered over 350 square miles of the ocean floor. Not surprisingly, there is
now concern that leakage could infiltrate the rich Pacific marine life. Haven't they always told you how safe and clean nuclear power was?
Maybe the guys who sold the plants to you should store the barrels in their basements... The former Soviet Union dropped dozens of intact
nuclear power plants into the sea. But it's easy to blame industry for putting toxic chemicals in the ocean when you haven't looked under
your sink or on the basement shelf lately. As much as 25% of all toxic waste originates in the home. Anything we put down the sink or toilet
will eventually make its way to the ocean. Toxic chemicals are present in many cleaners, paints, antifreezes, solvents and prescription drugs. |
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| What you can do:
Check your home for chemicals which are not biodegradable. Switch to cleaners and paints which may cost a few cents more, but go
a long way sparing the environment. Boycott companies which practice sea dumping and write to your legislator demanding that such
practices stop. Remember he or she needs your vote, too. |
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It's funny how we all try hard to get rid of our waste with
the illusion in our mind, that it is really gone. But where is it disappearing to? Orbiting around a distant planet far away from our green
hills? Disappearing into a black hole? Well, quite a bit of it goes into the ocean and, after a little while may well end up on our dinner
tables again. Waste is the most harmful form of pollution to marine creatures and humans alike. Once a form of toxic waste affects an
organism, it (the toxic waste) can be quickly passed along the food chain and might eventually end up as seafood, causing various
"problems". Toxic wastes arrive from the leakage of landfills, dumps, mines and farms. Sewage and industrial wastes introduce
chemical pollutants such as PCB, DDT and Sevin. Farm chemicals (insecticides and herbicides) along with heavy metals (e.g.,
mercury and zinc) can have a disasterous affect on marine life. So remember that the next time you slam back that seafood platter
à la PCB and DDT. You can rest assured that the traces are still there. Radioactive wastes, reactor leaks, natural radioactivity and
radioactive particles which originate from the Atmospheric Testing Programme from explosions of nuclear weapons are dispersed in
the water all over the world. The effect of these radioactive particles is currently being researched. All of these factors allow seafood
to have a chance of being hazardous to human health. For example, if a fish is contaminated with the metal Mercury (by either
eating it or consuming a creature who had), birth defects and nervous system damage in humans may result. Also, Dioxin causes
genetic and chromosomal mutations in marine life and is suspected of causing cancer in humans. Medical wastes, such as stale
blood vials, hypodermic needles, and urine samples that have been found in the ocean around the U.S. are being researched
to determine if swimmers have a chance of contracting Hepatitis or AIDS from such wastes. Other wastes have been known to
cause viral and bacterial diseases such as cholera, typhoid, dysentery, and diarrhea. |
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| What you can do:
Be aware that what you see is not always what you get. The stuff you have so carelessly thrown away, may well come right back to
your table in the form of seafood chowder. Be aware that you are an active polluter as well, and not just your neighbour. Try to do your
part and discuss with other people what could be done. |
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The sinking of radioactive waste in the oceans has been banned in 1994. However, the oceans remain
subject to the dangers or radioactive leaking. The main source of this form of pollution are the nuclear reprocessing plants, in Europe
the one in La Hague (F) and Sellafield (GB), which both pass loads of plutonium infected waste into the water. In 1997, Greenpeace
measured radioactivity near the drain pipe of La Hague and found it to be 17 million times higher than in uncontaminated waters.
But not only the Channel or the Irish Sea are affected by this pollution. The rate of leukemia is ten times higher among people living
in the area near Sellafield than it is in the rest of the country. In Norway, a survey showed that crabs and kelp along the Norwegian
coast were contaminated with Technetium-99, a radioactive substance coming from the nuclear reprocessing plant in Sellafield.
According to British scientists, Sellafield is a time bomb waiting to go off: the system which cools the plant is outdated and can no
longer assure a safe containment of radioactive waste. |
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| What you can do:
Support alternative energy sources and work towards an end to nuclear power. Be sensible and don't move near Sellafield or La Hague.
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For 50 years direct current (DC) electricity has been transported from coast to coast through cables along the seabed. As far as is
known strong electric fields influence the swimming behaviour of fish. Even though the electric fields which emanate from such cables are weak, they are
considered potent enough to influence the sense of orientation of salmon and eels. In addition, they affect adversely the development and growth of embryos
and larvae from ocean organisms. Moreover, high voltage creates irritating magnetic fields which are used by eels to orientate themselves thus influencing
their travelling behaviour. It is being suggested that whales could be influenced as well by these magnetic fields coming from high voltage cables, which
could be one of the reasons for the continuous beaching of whales. |
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| What you can do:
Try to reduce your energy consumption and support the localized development of alternative energy sources so long and wasteful transport of energy
can be cut out. |
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In April 1997 an international convention on the ban of chemical weapons was signed. All signatory states are now obliged to destroy
their stocks within the next ten years. The chemical remains of two world wars, however, are still rotting on the bottom of the oceans where they have been
quickly disposed of after the wars. More than a million tons of chemical weapons have been sunk after WW II alone, 40,000 tons in the Baltic Sea. A bunch
of chemical weapons containers which had been sunk in the Baltic Sea in 1947 by the Soviet military, are considered especially dangerous, because the
steel containers slowly rust away in their saltwater dumping site. Scientists believe that leaking chemicals are causing cancer-like tumors in fish as well as
burns and eczema with swimmers, which has occurred since the early 80s in Denmark as well as in the former German Democratic Republic. |
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| What you can do:
This is a straightforward one: Don't go swimming in the Baltic Sea if you can help it. |
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The coast of Italy is a popular spot for criminals who try to get rid of a little toxic waste on the cheap. The London Dumping
Convention, however, prohibits the dumping of toxic and industrial waste in maritime waters, which is why Italian shippers have to fear the wrath of
the police. In Israel, it is a whole different story, because the government there has not signed the convention. Haifa Chemicals, an Israeli company,
dumps 60,000 tons of toxic waste consisting of lead, mercury, cadmium, arsenic and chrome into the Mediterranean Sea. The current then takes the
whole highly poisonous cocktail up north to the Lebanon, Syria, Cyprus and Turkey. Sending their trash to the Arabs is probably only an added bonus
for the fanatics around Netanyahu. |
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| What you can do:
Ask your government that they draw other nations to sign the Dumping Convention as well. And if we're at it, let this be said. Israel and it's people have,
as far as we witnessed when we visited, not the slightest notion of protecting the environment. Also be aware that this is an all-out apartheid state, just
as much as South Africa used to be. |
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A tiny algae threatening the eco-system in the Mediterranean stands symbolic for the human interference in nature.
Caulerpa taxifolia, as the algae is called, quickly overgrew large areas of the coasts of Spain, France and Italy. Although the algae is natural
to the tropics only, it is believed that it started off in the Mediterranean when it was flushed into the ocean out of a tank at the Oceanographic
Museum in Monaco in the early 80s. Adaptive and tough, the algae ever since then grows rapidly during the summer when conditions of water
temperature and light are perfect. Although a lover of warm water, it survives the colder winter months also. It can even survive for a considerable
time out in the open, which is how the algae, attached to anchors and fishing nets keeps travelling around the Mediterranean, just recently reaching
the Croatian coastline. Once again, the Caulerpa taxifolia spreads quickly, lacking natural enemies. This pest, overgrowing plants and animals and
killling off natural habitats is a sure sign that humankind should not carelessly interfere with the ways and means mother nature had organized itself
previously. |
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Countless chemicals in the oceans around the globe interfere with the hormones of animals living in the water,
along the coast or feeding on any of these. One nudibranch living in the Northern Sea in Europe have suddenly begun to grow penises.
A substance in the paint used on ships is believed to be causing this. Consequently, the nudibranch has died out in many areas of the
North Sea. The reduced reproduction rate of ducks and eagles also causes concerns among scientists and they believe that a high absorption of
DDT and chloride in these birds is responsible for this. According to the WWF, countless animals are endangered by chemical waste, but especially
the organisms in the oceans, because the current allows the chemicals to travel and spread around the world. |
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One of the main sources of ocean pollution is everyday ship traffic. Normal day to day work on any ship creates waste.
One of these is called "Bunker C", used as fuel for ships. But this fuel contains ash, heavy metals and sediments from the various refining
processes it went through. Which is why "Bunker C" must be separated from this dirt before being fired in the ship's engines. What remains
is called "Sludge", a sticky, poisonous, oily substance. Now officially, this sludge would have to be disposed of in an environmentally sound
manner on land, but many prefer to just dump it while they are out on the water and save the buck. Two million tons of sludge are produced
yearly by regular ship traffic. How much of it is disposed illegally is not known, but it is estimated, that 44 per cent of all oil stuffs flushed into the
ocean are sludge coming from "Bunker C" separation, which makes it by far the largest single contributor to oil pollution from shipping sources in
the oceans. |
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Scientists doing research in the Gulf of Thailand are warning that high levels of pollution crimp the natural sex change of
groupers in the area. It was observed that in an unspecified number of cases, that the natural sexual metamorphosis among groupers had been
delayed or ceased to happen totally. The groupers showed high levels of arsenic, mercury and lead. The Gulf of Thailand is largely a closed
system of water, with only about 20 per cent of the water flowing out per year. In the past decade or so, the area has witnessed heavy industrial
development, with chemical plants, petrol refineries and factories built along the water. More industrial expansion is planned. Scientists also found
that the colour of the shells of the swimming crab is also changing. While it is normally blue when alive and red when cooked, the crabs in the area
now have red shells when alive, as if they had been boiled. |
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