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Marine Pollution- Documentary Script

Presentation · October 2005

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.21144.80646

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 MARINE POLLUTION- Documentary Script
by
Prof.A. Balasubramanian, University of Mysore

Seas and oceans are hydrological, geochemical and biological reservoirs. Oceans contain much
needed biotic resources for man-kind. The rapidly growing human population and settlements in
the coastal regions of many countries, exert pressure on the coastal environment and marine
resources. The introduction of unwanted substances into the marine environment will result in
deleterious effects to the living resources. Polluting the marine waters is a hazard to not only to
the marine life but also to the people using the marine food resources. It is a hazard to human
health and a hindrance to marine activities including fishing. Marine pollution is a major man-
made hazard of the environment, today. The marine pollution comes due to
1. Dumping of sewage into the seas
2. Release of Industrial and agricultural waste
3. Input of Silts from rivers and water courses
5. Use of Oil for transport and oil pollution and
6. impact of Coastal construction and dredging activities.

This episode covers the following modules:

1. Causes of Marine Pollution
2. Nature of Pollutants
3. Type of Marine pollution
4. Impact of oil on marine Environment
5. Impact on Marine life.

1. CAUSES OF MARINE POLLUTION:

Most of the man-made activities in and around seas and oceans will lead to some impacts on
marine waters. The following are the major causative factors for the pollution of marine waters.

Improper sewage disposal:

Sewage plants, where they exist, are poorly maintained. Disposal of sewage into rivers, estuaries
and bays with limited capacity to assimilate the high oxygen- demanding organic loads, poses
localized pollution problems and public health effects.

Industrial wastes:

Without proper treatment, if the industrial wastes are disposed into the sea, it will affect the
marine life.

Dangerous chemicals (sometimes acutely toxic) to marine biota and humans are being introduced
into the marine environment.

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Poor Agricultural Practices:

Mismanagement and over exploitation of forest resources have resulted in extensive

deforestation and severe soil erosion problems.

Harbour and Port :

Developments and growing human settlements involving coastal construction and dredging can
cause siltation and coastal erosion problems.

Coastal erosion also threatens the highways nearer the coastlines.

Oil spills from harbours and discharge of waste oil into the rivers and estuaries are deteriorating
the marine waters.

Tourism also leads to marine pollution.

Tourist hotels on beaches contribute more sewage load.

Destruction of coral reefs by excavation, cutting, and dynamiting, deplete the number of
crustaceans and fishes.

In addition to these,
the discharge of radioactive wastes from nuclear power plants
washing of ships and boats, which might have carried varieties of chemical substances
Mining and mineral processing along the coastal zones
Off-shore Oil well drilling
Submarine transport and
Under water exploration are some of the causative factors of marine pollution.

The tectonic forces like tsunamis, cyclonic storms carrying dusts and other substances, Floods
are some factors carrying wastes to the sea.

2. NATURE OF POLLUTANTS:

The major types of materials polluting the marine environment are, industrial wastes and
domestic solid wastes.

INDUSTRIAL WASTES

Industries are generally concentrated in the coastal zone because of the readily available
infrastructure including access to ports for the import of raw materials.

The major industries causing marine pollution are:

Oil refineries
Food processing industries (discharging organic wastes with high BOD)

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Textile factories
Distilleries
Cement factories
Pesticides and bicycle manufacturing and
Pulp and paper industries.

The characteristic and volume of the effluents depend on the technology used.

The polluting potential depends on the

1. Volume of effluents discharged,
2. their dilution by receiving water and
3. their toxicity to marine life.

SOLID WASTES

The notable solid wastes dumped into the marine environments are:
Glass materials
Metal containers
Paper and cardboard
Hazardous wastes
Used lubricating oils in containers
Expired medicines from hospitals
Old toxic chemicals and animal wastes.

The marine-based sources are:

1. Maritime and oil tanker traffic which leaves oil.

2. Exploration and exploitation of sea bed resources for mineral anri nil
3. sand and coral mining
4. coastal construction and dredging 5. Ocean dumping.

3. TYPE OF MARINE POLLUTION:

The various transfer routes of pollutants into the marine environment can lead to four types of
pollution as well as aesthetic impairment. They are
Physical
Chemical
Microbiological and
Thermal pollution.

PHYSICAL POLLUTION

The aesthetic aspects of marine pollution comprise, for example, odour nuisance from anoxic
coastal waters, littering of beaches, bays and estauries with
bottles
plastics

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metal cans
old tyres etc, there by impairing of obstructing the use of sea water and causing a reduction of
amenities.

The physical pollution also pertains to the silt and sediment load carried into estuaries and the
coastal zones by rivers.

This will be rendering the seawater turbid and create an ecological stress on most of the fauna
and flora.

CHEMICAL POLLUTION

This is the direct consequence of the introduction of toxic inorganic chemicals (like Hg, Cd, Cr,
Pb ) and persistent toxic chemicals like chlorinated pesticides and polychlorinated
biphenyls(PCB s).

These are actually toxic to marine organisms when present at high concentration or cause
devastating physiological and behavioural disorder responses when present at sub-lethal
concentrations.

Man and wild life suffer from harmful health effects sometimes through reproductive failures,
and due to the ingestion of marine biota polluted with chemicals.

Petroleum hydrocarbons also belong to this category.

Microbiological pollution is caused by sewage pollution of coastal waters and associated biota.
This leads to the generation of epidemic-causing pathogenic organisms.

Serious health risks are posed to man through body contact with such polluted water (`bathing' or
swimming)or injestion of raw or half-cooked contaminated sea foods caught in such waters.

Thermal pollution:

The term thermal pollution is used to denote the detrimental effects of heated discharges.

This results from the discharge of thermal power station cooling water effluents or hot effluents
from industrial complexes, usually with high temperature of 40-60 degree C into estuaries or
lagoon waters.

Fishes in tropical waters are known to live just below their upper lethal temperature limit (30° C)
for their survival.

Any addition of heat energy into the marine environment is detrimental to their survival.

Heat could result in fish kills or in altering the natural behaviour of stressed biota.

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The discharge of un-utilised heat from some industries into the environment will damage the
surrounding conditions.
If such materials are discharged into the sea by rivers or channels, the temperature of sea water
will increase and affect the life.

Thermal power stations, nuclear power stations, and municipal sewages are the major causes for
this pollution.

The effects of the discharges are dependent on the following factors:

temp. between the effluent and receiving waters.
The volume, velocity and size of the stream channel
Rate of heat dissipation and
The nature of downstream uses.

The discharged water from steam electric power industry will have the higher temperature
ranging from 8 deg. to 10. Deg. C. more than the temp. of the intake waters.

In order to generate more and more power, the industries cosume more raw materials and leave a
huge quantity of hot effluent every day.

Municipal sewage is one of the contributors of thermal pollution. These may have a higher
temperature always.

Sometimes, the materials may be under the burning process or at red hot condition, while
discharge.

When they are discharged into surface water bodies, the ultimate effects will not only be raise in
temp. but also damages the living resources.

When the temperature is increased, the demand for dissolved oxygen increases and hence,
anaerobic conditions will setup, resulting in the release of foul gases.

All aquatic life, depending upon the dissolved oxygen, will die.

Effects of thermal pollution:

temp increase can change the parameters like, Dissolved oxygen, pH, the rate of biochemical
reactions and the physical activity of many aquatic animals.
Potential hazard to fisheries- sharp changes in water temp. will be a destructive mechanism of
fisheries. It will affect the fish and the entire environment.
It affects the micro-organisms and the food chain of other animals.
Effect of dissolved oxygen.. When the temp of water is increased, the conc. of DO decreases.

Adequate supply of DO, is essential for all aquatic life.

Bacteria and a few other life consumes organic matter as food through oxidation.

5
The extent of oxidation depends on DO.

The DO is replenished by photosynthesis and re-aeration, in which, temp playa a dominant role.

Before discharging the hot effluents into the water courses, they should be cooled, through
artificial cooling tanks and towers.

Rapid cooling can be achieved when the surface area of the discharging channel is made more
wider with less depth.

Effects on Human Health :

Deleterious impacts on human health will result from the pollution of coastal and marine
environment.

This has 2 components.

Reduction in amenity such as, use of beaches for recreation (bathing, snorkeling, skin diving etc)
Poisoning by injestion of sea foods contaminated with pollutants.

4. IMPACT OF OIL ON THE MARINE ENVIRONMENT

Pollution by crude oil arises from tanker accidents, debris blasting operations and tank washing
as well as from natural seepages or losses from offshore production.

Tank washing and accidental release of fuel oil and other refined products will pollute to the
marine environment.

Let us see the Oil types and their significance to marine living resources.

Mineral oil enters the marine environment mainly from four different sources.
1. Accidental and intentional release of fossil fuel during production, transportation and use,
2. Advection through land-run-off and domestic and industrial
sewage,
Precipitation from the atmosphere and
Natural submarine seeps.

The fourth one is of minor importance.

The major part comes from the leaks and accidents in offshore oil wells

The forms released are:

Tar balls (large particles)
fine droplets (micro particles) - Adsorbed on particulate matter (silt & detritus and
phytoplanktons)
dissolved in sea water and
Water-in-oil emulsion.

6
Large floating aggregates are a nuisance in many respects. Before incorporation into organisms,
oil exists in two forms as
in solution and
as microparticles.

There are several physical, chemical and microbiological factors which influence the fate of oil
in the marine environment. They are
Spreading (as film)
Evaporation
3. Solution (oil-water dispersion)
4. Emulsifications (by rough detergents)
6. Sedimentation (particulate matter, sand, silt, clay & shell fragments)
7: Oxidation
Chemical degradation
Biological fates
Microbial degradation
Tar balls.

Effects of oil discharges

The interactions between oil and the marine environment are complex.

The physical, chemical and biological factors of oil pollution can alter the composition of oil
after discharge. Oils have a variety of effects on the marine environment.

The chemical and physical effects of oil upon the marine organisms are
De-oxygenation,
Heating effects,
Pollutant absorption and
Carbon-di-oxide gas transfer.

5. IMPACTS ON MARINE LIFE:

The effects of oil on marine life forms are more and the forms of oil dispersants are
Oil,
Fuel oil,
Sludges,
Oil refuse and
Refine oil.

The biological damage depends on the following:

Types of oil involved (aromatic compounds).
Dosage to organism exposed and duration.
Form of oil (fresh, weathered or emulsified).
Whether it is in solution, suspension, dispersion or adsorbed o n particulate matter.

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 Whether plankton, pleuston, nekton, or benthos are affected.
Season.
Adults or juveniles are involved.
Nature of the ecosystem.
Other factors- temperature, salinity, oceanographic parameters including waves and currents.
Previous History of exposure of organisms,

MORE EFFECTS ON MARINE ORGANISMS

Birds (sea birds) are affected more. Heavy mortality is observed on diving sea ducks, wintering
mallard, Grey leg goose, Swan, coot.
Mammals - More pronounced effects on Hair seals, sea otters, sea-lion pups, - seasonal
migration
Fish - Free-swimming fish, Fisheries will be affected. Turtle fisheries.
Benthic and inter-tidal organisms,
Zooplanktons / phytoplanktons/ microscopic algae / marine grasses.

Conclusion:

Oceans are rich with marine resources like minerals, oil and marine life. The sea food supplies
meet a substantial food requirement of the world’s population. The marine life depends on the
abiotic conditions of the sea waters. If these constituents of the sea water are polluted by land
based, man-made pollutants, the marine life will be affected and will carry such pollutants in its
biomass. The human population may get the impact while consuming such resources.

Hence, it is necessary to protect the marine waters, by carefully discharging the treated waste
waters and effluents, clearing them from any toxic substances and heavy metals affecting life.

Oceans are not dumping yards. Time immemorial, water courses were used to let off all wastes
thinking that they are irreversible destinations. But now, it is very essential to think about the
reversible effects of such activities. The chemical elements left into marine waters will come
back though our food chain and affect us. Let us protect the marine waters. Save our seas.

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