it is amazing many people seem to live alongside serious pollution and not notice.

Fishery
harbours and landing places around the world have traditionally been regarder as " appropriate
for insanitery conditions". only in the recent past has it been recognized that it is feasible to
maintain clean fishery harbours provided special care is taken proactively.

Fishery harbors must accommodate the special needs for (a) water supply and (b) management of
solid-liquid wastes. Insanitary conditions not only rsult in degradation of the environment, but also
in contamination of fidh and rapid spoilage. they also pose serious health hazards such as typhoid,
cholera, hepatitis B, and gastro-enteritis.

what is contamination? what is pollution? these are terms that need a clear definition.

GESAMP (Jointgroup of expertts on the scientific aspects of Marine pollution) defines pollution as
the introduction by man, directly or indirectly, of substances or energy into de marine
environment (including stuaries) result in such deleterious effects as harm to living resources,
hazards to human health, hidrance to marine activies including ,impairment of quality for use of
sea water and reduction de amenities.

contamination on the other has is the presence of elevated concentrations of sustances in the
environment above the natural background level for the area and for the organism.

Contamination of water by physical and bacteriological agents, be it drinking water, ice water or
harbor water, many be evaluated by laboratory test. TESt results are usually expressed in parts per
milion (mivrograms per liter or simply ppm) or partes per billion (micrograms per litre or ppb) for
physical parameters; and bacterial counts per 100 mililitres for for organisms. For both types of
contaminat, maximum levels are usually stipulated and these levels may differ from country to
country.

1.2 contamination of water in fishery harbors.

contaminants in modest quantities are present even in clean aquatic environments. A few metals
such as copper, selenium, iron, and zinc are essential nutrients for fish and shellfish.
Contamination occurs when there is a significant increase in their levels. Problems related to
chemical contamination of the aquatic environment are nearly all man-made. Industrial effluents,
sludge from sewage treatment plants, agriculture run- offs and raw untreated sewage from urban
populations and industry- all these contribute to chemical contamination of the environment.

The main concern of harbor managers however, is that clean water chemically equivalent to
drinking water is needed for fish washing, ice making and fish processing. Many chemicals present
above a certain level in water can be a public health hazard. Some interfere with water treatment
processes, some stain fixtures and plumbing, a few may cause undesirable scaling andmay be
aesthetically objectionable.

Due to the acute shortage of potable water in many countries, raw sea water is often utilized
during fish handling at sea or in port. This means that in addition to tap water, harbour basin or
estuarine waters could be a potential source of contamination. Pollution of harbor waters due to
dumping of untreated sewage in contiguous waters and the harbor basin, is often the most
common cause for seafood-related diseases and epidemics.
But it is a matter for concern that harbor water quality is heavily influenced by human activity not
only within the harbor complex but in the surrounding environment as well.

Effluents from aquaculture ponds, agriculture runoff, sewage discharge, toxic effluents from
industry into the contiguous water body, all effect the marine environment through biological,
chemical and physical interactions over different temporal and spatial scales. In addition, there
may be impacts that arise as a consequence of accidents or failure of normal operations such as
oil spills in coastal waters.

The fishing harbor is the focal point of the fishing effort -and sometimes village life revolves
around the activities of the harbor). It is here that fish is likely to be contaminated. By charting the
flow of fish through the fishing harbor (from the time it is discharged on the quay to the time it
leaves the port boundary), points can be identified where contamination or growth of micro-
organisms occurs. Control features can then be implemented, based on the identified health
hazard. This technique is known as a hazard analisysis critical control point programme or HACCP
in short. To the fishing port managemer, the tree major areas of concern are:

1 water quality standards of all the water used in the port (potable and sea water)

2. personal hygiene of the shore- bases workers

3. standard of cleanliness of the port in general.

Under HACCP, these three areas of concern translate into drastic changes in the long- point

- Minimizing and eventually elimination harbour and coastal pollution from point and non-
point
- Improving sanitation and hygiene throughout the fishing harbor
- Maintaining port and harbor infrastructure in good working order

In order to comply with these directives, a fishing port manager needs to have a good
understanding of both the natural environment existing around the fishing harbor well as the
environment generated within the harbor´s infrastructure. Since water is the underlying link which
connects the various fishing activities together, (Such as netting, storing and icing onboard,
handling inside a harbor and eventual sale of consumers) since most water supplies originate
outside the harbor area, the fishery harbor manager must ensure that water entering the harbor
is chemically and biologically fit for human consumption. Unfortunately, this task is rendered more
difficult in countries with a strong indigenous cottage industry, which, through the indiscriminate
use of highly toxic chemicals (chemical dyes, pesticides, paints and solvents), generally leads to
problems associated with groundwater pollution.