Description

Marine pollution is a broad category, consisting of oil pollution (including accidents with
offshore oil and gas installations) and all other marine pollution as defined e.g. in MARPOL
and the London Convention. MARPOL, the International Convention for the Prevention of
Pollution from Ships, is the main international convention covering prevention of pollution of
the marine environment by ships from operational or accidental causes. Its annexes list
various forms of marine pollution, caused by oil, noxious liquid substances, harmful
substances in packaged form, sewage and garbage from ships, etc. The London Convention
(Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter
of 1972), which entered into force in 1975, aims to control pollution of the sea from
dumping. It covers the deliberate disposal at sea of wastes or other matter from vessels,
aircraft, and platforms. In addition to the obvious (but difficult to quantify) environmental
damage caused by marine pollution, there may be health damage as well as social and
financial damage. The last two categories are taken together in this chapter and include
damage to the operators of installations, lost profits for the tourism sector and fishing
industry, etc. The term economic damage, like in other chapters of this report, is reserved for
the total of all financial and monetised impacts, but only to the extent to which such
information is available in existing studies or can be calculated. It should be noted that
marine pollution is not necessarily related to crime. However, the available data generally do
not distinguish between intent, (gross) negligence, and other causes of marine pollution. In
this chapter we will focus especially on dumping, leaving out accidents with offshore oil and
gas installations.1 Illegal waste shipment is analyzed elsewhere in this report and will
therefore not be discussed here either.
 Various Causes of Ocean Pollution
There are various ways in which pollution enters the ocean. Some of them are:

1. Sewage: Pollution can enter the ocean directly. Sewage or polluting substances flow
through sewage, rivers, or drainages directly into the ocean. This is often how minerals and
substances from mining camps find their way into the ocean.

2. Toxic Chemicals From Industries: Industrial and agricultural waste is another most
common form of wastes that is directly discharged into the oceans, resulting in ocean
pollution.

3. Land Runoff: Land runoff is another source of pollution in the ocean. This occurs when
water infiltrates the soil to its maximum extent, and the excess water from rain, flooding or
melting flows over the land and into the ocean.

4. Large Scale Oil Spills: Ship pollution is a huge source of ocean pollution, the most
devastating effect of which is oil spills. Crude oil lasts for years in the sea and is extremely
toxic to marine life, often suffocating marine animals to death once it entraps them. Crude oil
is also extremely difficult to clean up, unfortunately, meaning that when it is split, it is
usually there to stay.

5. Ocean Mining: Ocean mining in the deep sea is yet another source of ocean pollution.
Ocean mining sites drilling for silver, gold, copper, cobalt, and zinc create sulfide deposits up
to three and a half thousand meters down into the ocean.

6. Sources and transport: The main sources of contaminants in the Arctic are regarded as
being the fairly densely populated and industrialized parts of the world. The substances are
transported to the Arctic in the atmosphere and by ocean currents, and also by rivers and ice
in the Arctic. These are the most important means of transport, but pollutants carried by
animals which move between the polar areas may also have some significance.

Quantitative impacts: Arctic Sea

The Arctic is surrounded by the United States (Alaska), Canada, Greenland, Russia and
Norway. Data on impacts of environmental pollution are more difficult to find.

Traces of pollutants are found throughout the arctic environment: in air, soil, sediments,
snow, sea ice and glaciers, seawater and fresh water, birds, mammals and people. In many
ways, the Arctic acts as an indicator region for known and new pollutants. Researchers and
authorities are concerned about high concentrations of certain types of pollutants measured in
the Arctic.

Environmental impacts
Pollution sources in the Artic Sea The Arctic does not have significant pollution sources of its
own; however it is a recipient of chemical contaminants released elsewhere in the world.49
Poland et al (2003) note that the Arctic has very seriously polluted sites that are as bad as
sites anywhere else in the world.50 Levy, in a 1986 study on the Canadian Arctic marine
environment, found that baseline data on hydrocarbons in the eastern Arctic show that Arctic
marine waters are clean in comparison with marine waters in the mid-latitudes.

Hydrocarbons in the water column

o Davis strait: 0.532 μg/l-1
o West Lancaster Sound: 0.40 μg/l-1
o N. Baffin Bay: 0.52 μg/l-1
o Hudson Strait entrance: 0.35 μg/l-1
o Hudson Bay/Foxe Basin: 0.49 μg/l-1

Hydrocarbons in the surface microlayer

o N. Baffin Bay: 8.0 μg/l-1
o N. E. Baffin Is. Shelf: 12.3 μg/l-1
o Hudson Strait entrance: 4.1 μg/l-1
o Hudson Strait/Hudson Bay/Foxe Basin: 12.4 μg/l-1

Long range airborne contamination

According to Poland et al., major atmospheric pathways converging on the Arctic transport
organic and metal pollutants, acidifying compounds and radioactive contaminants.

Animal welfare
Effects of pollutants have been found in animals high in the food chains in the Arctic.
Impacts on the hormone and immune systems, reduced reproduction and increased offspring
mortality are some of the effects found in the polar bear, glaucous gull, arctic char and harp
seal. Impaired immune system and reduced reproduction show that far-transported pollutants
affect populations of arctic animals.
Moore identified changes in habits of marine mammals as a result of water pollution in the
Arctic sea.53 Some of the affected behaviours are:
 ● One week-delay in southbound migration; Increase in calf production coincident with
ice-free Chirikov basin in early spring;
● Reduction in calf numbers and changes in timing of occupation of breeding lagoons
by gray whales;
● Lack of gray whales feeding during July in the Chirikov Basin;
● Gray whales feeding year-round offshore Kodiak Island, Alaska;
● Gray whale calls detected in the western Beaufort Sea over the winter of 2003/2004;
Poland et al. also estimate that after the Exxon Valdez oil spill more than 35,000 bird
carcasses and 1000 sea-otter carcasses were retrieved in the Arctic and Antarctic

Polar cod and capelin are key species in the arctic ecosystem, and both are being monitored
with a view to their contaminant load. Since both species are important food items for other
fish-eating fish and for seals, whales and seabirds, this monitoring will provide better
information about the bioconcentration up the food chain.

In general, the levels of organic pollutants are very low in both polar cod and capelin, and it
is believed that neither of these species suffers any effects of a contamination load.
Scientists have also found a number of “new” pollutants, like various types of brominated
and fluorinated substances, in the air in Svalbard.

Health impacts
Barrie et al. find that the Arctic ecosystem is particularly sensitive to contaminants because
the highly lipophilic and persistent nature of contaminants causes them to accumulate in the
lipid-rich tissues of animals at the top of the food chain (polar bears, whales and seals), which
represent the basis of the diet of the inhabitants of the Arctic regions

Social and financial impacts

No data could be found on social and/or financial impacts in relation to pollution of the
Arctic Sea.

Economic impacts
No data could be found on economic impacts in relation to pollution of the Arctic Sea.

Solution for the problem

Marine pollution is a raging problem that needs to be solved as early as possible.
Some of the solution are as follows:

1. Reducing the Use of Plastic Products, believe it or not, plastic waste forms the
largest portion of ocean pollutants.then we must do everything possible not to
consume plastic products.
2. Reducing the Use of Chemical Fertilizers, Runoffs, too, pollute the oceans
immensely. In this part we should control and regulate the use of chemical fertilizers.
3. We should reduce the consumption,then it will reduce the production of everything
that goes to the ocean. We stopped using that and we throw away the waste and
that is killing the world and its population.

https://www.ecologic.eu/sites/default/files/publication/2016/
efface_d3.2d_quantitative_analysis_of_impacts_of_marine_pollution.pdf