chapter 1 coastal &marine environment...

Coastal & MarineEnvironment

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Coastal & Marine EnvironmentIntroduction

Part 3 - Pollutions

Mazen AbualtayefAssistant Prof., IUG, Palestine


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Marine pollution: A definitionThe introduction by man, directly or indirectly, of substances or energy into the marine environment, including estuaries, which results or is likely to result in such deleterious effects as harm to living resources and marine life, hazards to human health, hindrance to marine activities, including fishing and other legitimate uses of the sea, impairment of quality for use of sea water and reduction of amenities. (World Health Organization, article 1, paragraph 4).

يعرف التلوث البحري على أنه إدخال مواد أو طاقة بطريقة مباشرة أو غیر مباشرة إلى البیئة البحرية نتیجة لألنشطة

:البشرية المختلفة، مما يؤدي أو يؤدي إلى.تأثیرات ضارة على الكائنات والثروة البحرية الحیة•.تأثیرات ضارة على صحة اإلنسان•.إعاقة األنشطة البحرية المختلفة بما فیھا الصید•تغیر خواص میاه البحر مما يفقدھا صالحیتھا لألستخدام في •

.األغراض المختلفة


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Pollution•• Most of the wastes and contaminants Most of the wastes and contaminants

produced by human activities end up in the produced by human activities end up in the oceans.oceans.

•• Most of the world's coastal areas are Most of the world's coastal areas are polluted. polluted.

•• Pollution and development are changing Pollution and development are changing coastal habitats. coastal habitats.

•• Feeding and nursery areas are being Feeding and nursery areas are being destroyed, reducing fish and wildlife destroyed, reducing fish and wildlife populations. populations.

•• Along some coasts, runoff enriches the Along some coasts, runoff enriches the water with too many nutrients, leading to water with too many nutrients, leading to oxygenoxygen--depleted water and fish kills.depleted water and fish kills.

•• The open ocean is relatively clean because The open ocean is relatively clean because most pollutants come from land and remain most pollutants come from land and remain in water near coastal areas. in water near coastal areas.


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The origin of various sources of pollution are:


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2. Non-point sources of pollution

Sources of pollution


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•• Waste water, Waste water, •• Oil spills,Oil spills,•• Industrial discharges,Industrial discharges,•• Discharge from boats,Discharge from boats,•• Dumping of ballast water from shipsDumping of ballast water from ships•• Concentrated animal feeding Concentrated animal feeding

operations, andoperations, and•• Storm water.Storm water.•• Thermal dischargesThermal discharges

Point sources of pollutionPoint sources of pollution


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Oceanic sewage disposalOceanic sewage disposal

ShellfishShellfish

•• Typically the problem with sewage is that it Typically the problem with sewage is that it causes massive nutrient loading in the causes massive nutrient loading in the ocean ecosystem. ocean ecosystem.

•• When nutrient loading occurs there will When nutrient loading occurs there will often be algae blooms in the water leading often be algae blooms in the water leading to the loss of dissolved oxygen. to the loss of dissolved oxygen.

•• After the depletion of oxygen levels from After the depletion of oxygen levels from sewage, many organisms in the ocean die sewage, many organisms in the ocean die from being unable to breathe properly. from being unable to breathe properly.

•• Other problems associated with sewage Other problems associated with sewage include parasites/bacteria that require the include parasites/bacteria that require the closing of coastal beaches and poisoned closing of coastal beaches and poisoned shellfish fisheries. shellfish fisheries.

•• For the most part cities in the developed For the most part cities in the developed world have sewage treatment facilities but world have sewage treatment facilities but many of the cities in poorer areas have little many of the cities in poorer areas have little to no sewage treatment.to no sewage treatment.

Parasites:Parasites: یات یات طفیلطفیل


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•• Humans can become infected by eating Humans can become infected by eating contaminated shellfish and by swimming contaminated shellfish and by swimming (via (via diseases such as hepatitis, cholera, and typhoid fever)diseases such as hepatitis, cholera, and typhoid fever)..

•• Sewage affects the oceans because it can Sewage affects the oceans because it can kill marine animals.kill marine animals.

•• In North America sewage treatment plants In North America sewage treatment plants discharge twice as much oil each year as discharge twice as much oil each year as tanker spills.tanker spills.


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Sewage sludgeSewage sludge

• Sewage sludge is the semisolid material that remains after sewage treatment.

• Much sewage sludge was dumped offshore until laws restricted sewage dumping.


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Dec. 7th 2007, S. Korea:

A 146,000-ton Hong Kong registered supertanker collided with a barge about seven miles off Mallipobeach causing whatis said to be South Korea'sbiggest oil spill in more than a decade.

Oil spillOil spill


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Drainage into riverDrainage into riverRivers carry pollutedRivers carry polluted runoff from city streets, sewage, industrial runoff from city streets, sewage, industrial wastes, raw sewage, pesticides and fertilizers from farms, and wastes, raw sewage, pesticides and fertilizers from farms, and silt from landsilt from land--clearing, construction projects, and dredging.clearing, construction projects, and dredging.


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Thermal pollutionThermal pollution26% of all water in U.S. is affected…. Up to a point of adding heated water, you can get thermal enrichment… Adding more heat, you get…. thermal pollution

Effects: The primary effects of thermal pollution are direct thermal shock, changes in dissolved oxygen, and the redistribution of organisms in the local community. Because water can absorb thermal energy with only small changes in temperature, most aquatic organisms have developed enzyme systems that operate in only narrow ranges of temperature.


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Non-point sources of pollution

Impairment: تدھور


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Impacts of Non-point Source Pollution• Polluted runoff can have both ecological and human

health impacts. • Increases in polluted runoff have been linked to a loss

of aquatic species diversity and abundance, including many important commercial and recreational fish species.

• Non-point source pollution has also contributed to coral reef degradation, fish kills, sea grass bed declines and algal blooms (including toxic algae). In addition, many shellfish bed and swimming beach closures can be attributed to polluted runoff.

Abundance: وفرة


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NonNon--point source pollution, or polluted point source pollution, or polluted runoff, is the greatest threat to coastal runoff, is the greatest threat to coastal waters. Note the darker water flowing waters. Note the darker water flowing from the developed area at the lower from the developed area at the lower right. right.

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Synthetic organic chemicals

• Pesticides and industrial chemicals inhibit photosynthesis and movement in plankton

• cause tumors, • birth defects, • and other damage in vulnerable

organisms.

Synthetic: االصطناعیةinhibit: تعیقTumors: األورامVulnerable: الضعیفة

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Chemicals

• These are toxic substances that are released by the industrialized nations and make their way into ocean systems.

• Toxic chemicals often enter ocean systems through food chains and affect organisms at different times and places from where they were released.

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DDT

• DDT was a widely used pesticide that became concentrated in marine fish.

• DDT caused brown pelicans and ospreys to produce thin egg shells.

• Worldwide, DDT has been banned from agricultural use but is still used in limited quantities for public health purposes.

• Although DDT is not used in the marine environment it enters marine food webs through land runoff, precipitation and dumping.

• DDT is absorbed by plankton but cannot be metabolized.

• Since, it is not metabolized it accumulates in the food chain until it reaches the top carnivore, where more drastic effects are seen.

• For example, in marine birds, DDT interferes with calcium deposition in the eggshells. The eggs shells are extremely thin and therefore easily broken.

Pelicans: البجع Ospreys: طیور الشماط

[dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane]

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PCBs

• PCBs are industrial chemicals used as liquid coolants and insulation in industrial equipment such as power transformers.

• PCBs enter the marine environment through leaks and from discarded equipment.

• PCBs can accumulate in animal tissues and affect reproduction.

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Mercury and Minamatadisease

• Mercury has many industrial uses but is extremely toxic.

• A chemical plant released large quantities of mercury into MinamataBay, Japan.

• Residents who ate highly contaminated fish suffered neurological disease and birth disorders (Minamata disease).

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ToxicToxic oceanocean pollutantspollutants

•• Sources : The leaking of landfills, Sources : The leaking of landfills, dumps, mines and farms. dumps, mines and farms.

•• Enters our food chain .Enters our food chain .•• Lead: Affects brain, kidneys.Lead: Affects brain, kidneys.•• Effects : Food poisoning.Effects : Food poisoning.

Mines: Mines: األلغاماأللغام

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• An algal bloom or marine bloom or water bloom is a rapid increase in the population of algae in an aquatic system.

• Algal blooms may occur in freshwater as well as marine environments.

• Typically only one or a few phytoplankton species are involved, and some blooms may be recognized by discoloration of the water resulting from the high density of pigmented cells.

• Although there is no officially recognized threshold level, algae can be considered to be blooming at concentrations of hundreds to thousands of cells per milliliter, depending on the severity. Algal bloom concentrations may reach millions of cells per milliliter.

• Colors observed are green, yellowish-brown, or red. Bright green blooms may also occur.

• These are a result of blue-green algae, which are actually bacteria (cyanobacteria).

• Blooms may also consist of macro algal, not phytoplankton, species; these blooms are recognizable by large blades of algae that may wash up onto the shoreline.

Algal bloom

Pigmented: الصباغیةDiscoloration: تغییر اللونthreshold: البدایة

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Aerial photo of 1999 algae bloom in the James River arm of Table Rock Lake

People wade through blue-green algae at Qingdao, the host city for sailing events at the 2008 Olympic Games, in eastern China's Shandong province.

Wade: تجتاز بصعوبة

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Red tide is an estuarine or marine algal bloom [a relatively rapid increase in the population of (usually) phytoplankton algae in an aquatic system and is caused by a species of dinoflagellates] often present in sufficient numbers (thousands or millions of cells per milliliter) to turn the water red or brown.

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Industrial pollutants

• This refer to the characteristics of the waste matter given off from factories.

• The impact of industrial discharges depends not only on their collective characteristics, such as biochemical oxygen demand and the amount of suspended solids, but also on the content of specific inorganic and organic substances.

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Agricultural pollutants

• Agriculture, is the source of many organic and inorganic pollutants in waters. These contaminants include both sediment from erosion cropland and compounds of phosphorus and nitrogen that partly originate in animal wastes and commercial fertilizers. Animal wastes are high in oxygen demanding material, nitrogen and phosphorus, and they often harbor pathogenic organisms.

• Pathogenic organisms are those which have the ability to cause disease and or death.

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Eutrophication• The release of excess nutrients into coastal

waters. • Fertilizers used on land are washed into the

ocean via rivers and streams. • High nutrient concentrations cause

phytoplankton blooms such as, red tides, various yellow and green foams, slimes, and slicks. Although algal blooms are natural, a higher frequency of their occurrence in the past twenty years indicates an unhealthy ecosystem.

• The toxicity of recent blooms are increasing, which can have a direct effect on the organisms that feed on them.

• Also, phytoplankton naturally contains DMS (dimethyl sulfide) which is released from dead phytoplankton into the atmosphere and can be changed to sulfuric acid to eventually contribute to acid rain.

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Desalination plants• There are several concerns about the

impact of desalination plants on the marine environment. Various chemicals used to clean pipes and to pre-treat the water, are later washed out in the effluent.

• One of the largest concerns is the release of highly-concentrated salt water, sometimes into estuaries and rivers, where the salt content is obviously much lower than in the open ocean.

• Estuaries are important breeding and juvenile development habitats for many species, because of their calm waters. Eggs, larvae and juveniles are usually far less tolerant to environmental changes than their adult counterparts, so changes in estuary oceanography could have a large impact of brood stock of various fish and invertebrate species.

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Radioactive waste • Radioactive waste enters the ocean from

nuclear weapon testing, the releasing or dumping of wastes from nuclear fuel cycle systems, and nuclear accidents.

• Dumping of high-level radioactive waste is no longer permitted in the ocean, but dumping of low-level wastes is still permitted. Low-level waste contains less radioactivity per gram than high-level waste. High-level wastes usually have longer half-lives.

• For example, one common high-level waste that is produced by spent nuclear fuel has a half-life of 24,100 years!

• It has been suggested that contained nuclear waste should be disposed in the deep sea. So little is known about the deep sea environment or the consequences of containment leakage and failure, that the effects could be devastating.

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Heavy metals• Heavy metals in the water are

dangerous when they have a chance to built up inside organisms.

• Organisms tend not to get rid of the metals within them, so it accumulates over the coarse of their life

• Examples: mercury, cadmium, arsenic

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third of the toxic contaminants and nutrients that enter coastal areas and oceans.

• Some pollutants first enter the atmosphere and later settle in the ocean.

Air pollution

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Noise pollution

Noise, especially noise that interferes with marine mammals and other animals communications and hearing.

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Boat pollution

Boats also effect the ocean because the paint drips off and their garbage falls into the ocean which causes more pollution around the globe.

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Litter

• Garbage includes junked out fishing nets, plastics, general household garbage

• In one case an island 300 miles from the nearest inhabited island) had 950 pieces of garbage ranging from plastics to tin cans.

• Garbage in the oceans is a serious issue as fish entangle themselves in fishing nets and animals sometimes eat trash products and die.

• There are numerous examples each year of dolphins, sharks and whales entangling themselves in fishing nets and dying from oxygen starvation.

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Plastic• Found even in remote Antarctica,

plastics harm porpoises, seals, turtles, birds, fish, and other marine life, and degrade beaches.

• Equipment from the fishing industry (nets, lines, buoys, etc.) that has been lost or discarded another source of litter.

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Less than 1% of bags are recycled. It costs more to recycle a bag than to produce a new one.

“There's harsh economics behind bag recycling: It costs $4,000 to process and recycle 1 ton of plastic bags, which can then be sold on the commodities market for $32”

Data released by the United States EPAEPAshows that somewhere between 500 billion and a trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide each year.

Plastic bags

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Then…

Where Do They Go?

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A study in 1975, showed oceangoing vessels together dumped 8 million pounds of plastic annually. The real reason that the world's landfills weren't overflowing with plastic was because most of it ended up in an ocean-fill

Bags get blown aroundBags get blown around……

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…… to our seas, lakes and rivers.to our seas, lakes and rivers.

Bags find their way into the sea Bags find their way into the sea via drains and sewage pipes via drains and sewage pipes

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Plastic bags account for over 10% of the debris washed up on the U.S. coastline

Plastic bags photodegrade:Over time they break down into smaller, more toxic petro-polymers

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waterwayswaterways

As a consequence As a consequence microscopic particles microscopic particles can enter the food chaincan enter the food chain

The effect on wildlife can be The effect on wildlife can be catastrophiccatastrophic

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Birds become terminally entangled

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Nearly 200 different species of sea life including whales, dolphins, seals and turtles die due to plastic bags

They die after ingesting plastic They die after ingesting plastic bags which they mistake for bags which they mistake for foodfood

turtleturtle

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So…

What do we do?

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If we use a cloth bag……. ………….we can save 6 bags a week

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That's 24 bags a month

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That's 288 bags a year

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That's 22,176 bags in an average life time

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If just 11 out of 44 people in our country did this we would save 22,176,000,00022,176,000,000 bags

over our life time

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Bangladesh has banned plastic Bangladesh has banned plastic bags bags

China has banned free plastic China has banned free plastic bagsbags

Ireland took the lead in Ireland took the lead in Europe, taxing plastic bags in Europe, taxing plastic bags in 2002 and have now reduced 2002 and have now reduced plastic bag consumption by plastic bag consumption by 90% 90%

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In 2005, Rwanda banned plastic bags

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Canada, western India, Botswana, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Taiwan, and Singapore have also banned or are moving toward banning the plastic bag

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Plastic shopping bags are made from polyethylene: a thermoplastic made from oil

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ChinaChina will savewill save 37 million barrels of oil 37 million barrels of oil each year due to their ban of free each year due to their ban of free plastic bags plastic bags

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Type Primary Source/Cause Effect

Nutrients Runoff approximately 50% sewage, 50% from forestry, farming, and other land use. Also airborne nitrogen oxides from power plants, cars etc.

Feed algal blooms in coastal waters. Decomposing algae depletes water of oxygen, killing other marine life. Can spur algal blooms (red tides), releasing toxins that can kill fish and poison people.

Sediments Erosion from mining, forestry, farming, and other land-use; coastal dredging and mining.

Cloud water; impede photosynthesis below surface waters. Clog gills of fish. Smother and bury coastal ecosystems. Carry toxinsand excess nutrients.

Pathogens Sewage, livestock. Contaminate coastal swimming areas and seafood, spreading cholera, typhoid and other diseases.

Alien Species Several thousand per day transported in ballast water; also spread through canals linking bodies of water and fishery enhancement projects.

Outcompete native species and reduce biological diversity. Introduce new marine diseases. Associated with increased incidence of red tides and other algal blooms. Problem in major ports.

Persistent Toxins (PCBs, Heavy metals, DDT etc.)

Industrial discharge; wastewater discharge from cities; pesticides from farms, forests, home use etc.; seepage from landfills.

poison or cause disease in coastal marine life, especially near major cities or industry. Contaminate seafood. Fat-soluble toxins that bio-accumulate in predators can cause disease and reproductive failure.

Oil 46% from cars, heavy machinery, industry, other land-based sources; 32% from oil tanker operations and other shipping; 13% from accidents at sea; also offshore oil drilling and natural seepage.

Low level contamination can kill larvae and cause disease in marine life. Oil slicks kill marine life, especially in coastal habitats. Tar balls from coagulated oil litter beaches and coastal habitat. Oil pollution is down 60% from 1981.

Plastics Fishing nets; cargo and cruise ships; beach litter; wastes from plastics industry and landfills.

Discard fishing gear continues to catch fish. Other plastic debris entangles marine life or is mistaken for food. Plastics litter beaches and coasts and may persist for 200 to 400 years.

Radioactive substances

Discarded nuclear submarine and military waste; atmospheric fallout; also industrial wastes.

Hot spots of radio activity. Can enter food chain and cause disease in marine life. Concentrate in top predators and shellfish, which are eaten by people.

Thermal Cooling water from power plants and industrial sites. Kill off corals and other temperature sensitive sedentary species. Displace other marine life.

Noise Supertankers, other large vessels and machinery. Can be heard thousands of kilometers away under water. May stress and disrupt marine life.

Sources & effects of marine pollution

chapter 1 coastal &marine environment...

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