MARINE POLLUTION

MARINE POLLUTION

•a combination of chemicals and

trash, most of which comes from land
sources and is washed or blown into
the ocean.
TWO MAIN TYPES OF POLLUTION:

CHEMICALS TRASH

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND

 CHEMICAL
CONTAMINATION Health

occurs when human activities,

lead to the runoff of Environmental
chemicals into waterways that
flow into the ocean.

Economic reasons
 PLASTIC

LITTERING
MARINE TRASH

STORM WINDS

POOR WASTE
MANAGEMENT
 Beverage
Shopping bags bottles

COMMON TYPES Cigarette

Bottle caps
OF MARINE DEBRIS butts

Food
Fishing gear
wrappers
 PETROLEUM
HYDROCARBO
NS

Petroleum pollution has become

a serious environmental problem,
which can cause harmful damage
to the environment and human
health. This pollutant is
introduced into the environment
from both natural and
anthropogenic sources. 
 PETROLEUM
HYDROCARBONS
 Example:
Ghost nets or other
PLASTICS discarded fishing Plastic bags or small
gear can continue to pellets are often
entangle marine mistaken for prey and
animals for years ingested by marine
before washing turtles and seabirds.
ashore or sinking.
 Philippines is the world’s third’s
largest ocean polluter.

PLASTICS Uses 60 billion sachets a year

Everyday, almost 48 million shopping bags

are used, adding up to more than 17
billion a year. (does not include the
smaller, thinner transparent plastic bags;
16.5 billions are used)
 PESTICIDES AND OTHER
BIOLOGICALLY ACTIVE
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS

• The best know insecticide, DDT

It was first employed in 1940
Within its 20 years, its residues
could be found throughout the
biosphere.
Often sprayed from aircraft, it was
easily carried by winds into the
ocean.
 During 1960s, an increasing evidence
that marine organisms (seabirds) were
affected in marine areas where DDT
concentrations were high.

PESTICIDES AND OTHER Harmful effects were found in LA zoo in

1976= death of cormorants and gulls that
BIOLOGICALLY ACTIVE
had been fed inadvertently for years on
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS locally caught fish contaminated with DDT.

DDT usage has now been banned in some

countries, but continues to be used in
tropical areas as an effective control against
mosquito populations that carry malaria.
 HEAVY METALS Copper

• Poisonous to organisms
with high concentration
• Potential health Mercury
problems exist where
heavy metal accumulate
in the sea around
industrial outfalls/
marine sites used to
Cadmium
dispose some type of
mine tailings.
 • Heavy metals have acute toxic
effects, but accumulation of these
substances in marine animals may
HEAVY METALS
also cause chronic effects (growth
abnormalities), including cancers.
 • sewage is treated before being discharged, either
SEWAGE underground or to receiving surface-water bodies
typically a stream, river, or coastal outlet.
 • the chemical additives held in portable toilets
SEWAGE and holding tanks such as chlorine, ammonium
and zinc are toxic to marine life and therefore
may potentially affect marine animals and plants
 In the Philippines, only 10% of wastewater is
treated while 58% of the groundwater is
contaminated;

Only 5% of the total population is connected

to a sewer network
Data from the Environmental Management
Bureau (EMB), out of the 127 freshwater
bodies being sampled, 47% = good water
SEWAGE quality .

40%=fair water quality

13% showed poor water quality.

About 4,200 people die each year due to

contaminated drinking water.
 Radionuclides are the main
sources of pollution
RADIOACTIVE
WASTES
Classified as: Low level waste,
Intermediate level waste, High
level waste
 has a radioactive content not
exceeding four giga-becquerels per
tonne (GBq/t) of alpha activity or
12 GBq/t beta-gamma activity.
LOW LEVEL
WASTE

generated from hospitals and

industry, as well as the nuclear fuel
cycle.
 •  more radioactive than
LLW, but the heat it
generates (<2 kW/m3) is
not sufficient to be taken
INTERMEDIATE LEVEL WASTE into account in the design
or selection of storage
and disposal facilities.
 is sufficiently radioactive for its decay
heat (>2kW/m3) to increase its
temperature, and the temperature of
its surroundings. As a result, HLW
requires cooling and shielding.
HIGH LEVEL
WASTE

Two kinds of HLW: Used fuel that has

been designated as waste, Separated
waste from reprocessing of used fuel.
 • contains radioactive
materials at a level
which is not considered
VERY LOW LEVEL WASTE
harmful to people or
the surrounding
environment
 occurs when power plants and
factories discharge hot or cold
water into nearby rivers, lakes,
streams, oceans or bays, causing
rapidly changing water temperatures
THERMAL
EFFLUENTS
EFFECTS ON MARINE LIFE:
Slowing of metabolism, Oxygen
depletion, Forced Migration, and
Cool water discharge