Chapter 1

Lecture 1
Introduction to Marine Pollution
What is marine pollution?
 Marine pollution includes a range of threats including
from land-based sources, oil spills, untreated sewage,
heavy siltation, eutrophication (nutrient enrichment),
invasive species, persistent organic pollutants (POP’s),
heavy metals from mine tailings and other sources,
acidification, radioactive substances, marine litter,
overfishing and destruction of coastal and marine
habitats (McCook 1999, Nyström et al. 2000, Bellwood
et al. 2004).
Definition of marine pollution
(by GESAMP)
 "Pollution means the introduction by man,
directly or indirectly, of substances or energy into
the marine environment (including estuaries)
resulting in such deleterious effects as harm to
living resources, hazards to human health,
hindrance to marine activities including fishing,
impairment of quality for use of sea water and
reduction of amenities".
Types of marine pollution
1. Ship-based pollution
2. Land-based pollution
3. Sea-based activities (e.g. aquaculture)
4. Thermal pollution
5. Sound pollution
6. Atmospheric source pollution
7. Marine litter
8. Abnormal salinities
9. Sedimentation
Ship-based Marine Pollution
 The growth in the amount of oil being transported
by sea and in the size of oil tankers was of particular
concern
 Examples of maritime incidents which caused
environmental disaster;
1. Torrey Canyon 1967
2. Exxon Valdez 1989
Ship-based pollution
 Types of ship based pollution include;
1. Oil
2. hazardous and noxious substances (HNS)
3. ballast water discharge
4. Tributyltin (TBT)
Land-based pollution
 Human activities on land are a major threat to the
health, productivity and biodiversity of the marine
environment.
 About 80 per cent of all marine pollution is caused by
human activities on land in the form of sewage
disposal in rivers and coastal waters; urban storm-
water run-off; sediment mobilisation; inadequately
treated waters from industries; discharges of
phosphorus and nitrogen used in agriculture; and
finally, dumping of heavy metals and persistent
organic pollutants.
Land-based pollution
 Rivers are the main source of land-based
pollution in marine environment. The
Department of Environment (DOE) found
that many rivers in Malaysia are polluted by;
1. Domestic sewage
2. Sewage from livestock farms (pig farms in
particular)
3. Runoffs from towns
4. Leachate from rubbish dumps
5. Trash/litter from riverside squatters
Sea-based activities (activities that carried
out at sea area, e.g. mariculture)

 Aquaculture activities which involve the use of sea

water and marine species is known as mariculture
 Poor management of mariculture causes adverse
impact to marine environment.
 Mariculture at inappropriate sites can lead to
habitat conversion and on-going operational
impacts (e.g. issues of shrimp farm and conversion
of mangrove areas).
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 Mariculture potentially has several adverse effects on
wild species, including disease transmission, escape,
and capture for brood-stock or rearing among others.
 Production of nutrient-loaded effluent can lead to
eutrophication of nearby waters (i.e. adverse impact
on coral reefs).
 Prophylactic use of chemicals, including antibiotics
can harm wildlife and the environment, and may lead
to antibiotic resistance.
continue
 Reliance on high protein, fishmeal-based feed for
carnivorous species often requires many pounds of
wild fish to produce one pound of edible
aquaculture/mariculture product.
 The decline in fisheries in some areas is due to direct
environmental impacts of aquaculture or its indirect
impacts on the market price of local catch.
Thermal pollution
 Thermal pollution in marine environment is resulted
from heated or cooled effluent which is produced by
industrial process, particularly the effluent from power
plant which is located on coastlines.
 Increased in water temperature decreases dissolved
oxygen in water column. It has been established that
sublethal heat stress is deleterious to marine life.
Corals are the most sensitive of changes in water
temperature.
Thermal pollution
Sound pollution
 Sound pollution in marine environment comes from
variety of sources
1. supertanker
2. underwater exploration activity
3. marine scientific research (i.e. acoustic
thermometry)
4. low frequency active (LFA) sonar system developed
by the United States Navy.
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 Sound pollution is especially dangerous to marine
mammals. The marine mammals like whales,
dolphins, porpoises and seals use sonar for
communication and echo-location, as well as to find
food. Sound pollution may cause disorientation to
marine mammals.
 The LFA sonar system was believed to cause stranding
of beaked whales in Bahamas in 2000.
Abnormal salinities
 Abnormal salinities adversely affect marine life.
 Discharge effluents from desalination plants located
on coastline in Florida (America) appeared to be
responsible for the disappearance of marine species.
Sedimentation
 Development of coastal zone which involves
earthworks and land-clearing may cause serious
sedimentation in marine environment.
 At higher level of sedimentation, corals are eventually
killed by smothering.
Marine litter
 Marine litter is defined as, “solid materials of human
origin that are discarded at sea or reach the sea
through waterways or domestic and domestic outfalls”.
 Marine litter could be originated from land-based
sources and sea-borne sources (e.g. litters from ships).
Other types of marine litter
 Discarded fishing nets causes “ghost fishing”.
“Ghost fishing” cause entanglement of marine
life like seals, turtles and dolphins. It was
reported that every year, about 30, 000
northern fur seals were affected from “ghost
fishing”.

 Plastic litter is also a common type of marine

debris and is recognised as a threat to turtles.
Loggerhead turtles often mistake plastic litter
for jellyfish.
 Atmospheric source
pollution

 Airborne pollutant predominate mid-ocean areas and is

recognised as significant source of marine pollution.
 Regulations for the Prevention of Air Pollution from
Ships were adopted in the 1997 Protocol to MARPOL
73/78 and are included in Annex VI of the Convention.
 MARPOL Annex VI sets limits on sulphur oxide and
nitrogen oxide emissions from ship exhausts and
prohibits deliberate emissions of ozone depleting
substances.
References
 Bellwood, D.R., Hughes, T.R., Folke, C. and Nyström,
M. (2004). Confronting the coral reef crisis. Nature
429: 827-833
 McCook, L.J. 1999 Macroalgae, nutrients and phase
shifts on coral reefs: scientific issues and management
consequences for the Great Barrier Reef. Coral Reefs
18: 357-367.
 Nyström, M., Folke, C. and Moberg, F. 2000. Coral reef
disturbance and resilience in a human-dominated
environment. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 15: 413-
417