Marine Pollutants

• Petroleum hydrocarbons
• Plastics
• Pesticides
• Heavy metals
• Sewage
• Radioactive waste
• Thermal effluents
 Pollutants Entering the Ocean
Industrial Litter 5%
wastewater
5%
Offshore oil
10%

Marine
transportation
10%

Air pollutants Farm runoff 20%

20%
Exxon Valdez (1989)- Prince William Sound, Alaska
• 10 million gallons of oil spilled
• 400 miles of shore line affected
• $3 billion and 2 summers cleaning
 Spain November 19, 2002

 The Prestige: a 26-year-old Bahamas-flagged

single hulled vessel

 Sunk with 20 million gallons of viscous fuel oil

 Hundreds of miles of rugged coastline have been

fouled by the stricken Prestige's cargo,
destroying wildlife and wrecking the area's
fisheries and shellfish industry.
Persian Gulf War (1991)
• 240 million gallons of oil spilled
Containing oil spills:
• Floating booms- contain oil and then pump into
other ship
• Burning oil off
• Chemical dispersants
• Bioremediation- bacteria
 Plastics

• 100,000 marine mammals & 2 million sea birds die each

year after ingesting or being trapped in plastic debris
 The surprising solution to ocean plastic
David Katz

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mT4Qbp89nIQ
Laysan Island
 Albatross
Studies of birds in the North
Pacific have shown that
ingestion of plastics results in
declining body weight and body
condition.

This plastic is sometimes

regurgitated and fed to chicks; a
study of Laysan albatross
chicks on Midway Atoll showed
large amounts of ingested
plastic in naturally dead chicks
compared to healthy chicks
killed in accidents.
Biomagnification
 Pesticides, Herbicides & other
organochlorines

• Polychlorinated biphenyl (PCBs)

• Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT)

Bioaccumulation biomagnification
 Toxic Metals

Heavy metals resist biodegredation

Natural occurrence- volcanoes

• Mercury (Hg)
• Copper (Cu)
• Lead (Pb)
• Cadmium (Cd)
 Mercury

Minamata Disease:

Minamata disease, sometimes referred to as

Chisso-Minamata disease, is a neurological
syndrome caused by severe mercury poisoning.
Symptoms include ataxia, numbness in the hands
and feet, general muscle weakness, narrowing of
the field of vision and damage to hearing and
speech.
 Mercury
Minamata Disease (1953-1960)– Japan
 Lead
• Leaded gasoline invented 1920’s

• Enters water from automobile exhaust, runoff

and atmospheric fallout of industrial waste and
landfills, mines, dumps, paints
 Point Source Pollution
Sewage

• Causes disease outbreaks

• Contributes to eutrophication
Radioactive pollution
Chernobyl nuclear accident, USSR

Fukushima nuclear disaster Japan

Thermal Effluents

Power plants
Sediment
Runoff
Other Wastes
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=du5d5PUrH0I

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZKoJTzxeM8