Oceans and Pollution

River Pollution

For a long time humans believed that the immensity of the oceans could absorb waste without any consequences. We now know that everything we throw into the ocean modifies its equilibrium: nothing is lost. Oil spills, the proliferation of algae in the Mediterranean, the disappearance of marine species…..we are aware today of the harm caused by pollution, which comes from two main sources.

           Pollution from the continents represents 70 percent of marine pollution. Sewage water industry waste (metals and phosphates), chemical, waste, loaded with pesticides and fertilizers. Once they’ve been used for crops, fertilizers are carried by run-of to rivers, which then transport them to the sea.

Polluted Pond Water

       The second main source is pollution resulting from maritime transport and from oil transport in particular. Everyone knows about oil tanker accidents-Erika and prestige being the most recent-but offshore oil rigs also cause the sadly famous ‘oil spills’. Soiled beaches, oil-smeared birds, uneatable fish and shellfish: the damage they cause is horrendous. But on a worldwide scale, there is a for more serious form of pollution than oil spills from tanker accidents, and that is the deliberate discharge of oil, which as a result constantly degrades the marine environment. The principal guilty parties are the oil tankers that empty their cargo in to the sea. This is called ‘degassing’ (degasification). Despite the creation of surveillance systems and the many measures taken to prohibit this practice, oil tanker are not always very scrupulous* and degas on the high seas clandestinely*. In all approximately 600,000 tons of hydrocarbons are discharged into the oceans every single year! A Large part of it is ‘digested’ by  them: oil dissolves slowly in water and falls to the deeps to never rise again. But that doesn’t keep it from seriously harming marine fauna, and this in turn diminishes the resources of developing countries, which are very dependent on ocean products. In addition to hydrocarbons Other aggressive pollutants also contaminate the oceans, notably waste from chemical products transported by ship that industrialized countries do not want to dispose of themselves. 

Factory Polluted the River

The result is that this cargo is sent to far away country that are less strict about regulation, often to parts of Africa or South America. Thus these are the places that are the most exposed to Pollution hazards.