Marine pollution

Definition
"Introduction of man, directly or indirectly, of substances or
energy into the marine environment (including estuaries)
resulting in such deleterious effects as harm to living resources,
hazard to human health, hindrance to marine activities including
fishing, impairment of quality for use of sea-water, and reduction
of amenities.” – GESAMP
 Contd..
Marine pollution

General impacts

 Impacts on living resources

 Hazards to human health
 Hindrance to marine activities
 Impairment of quality of seawater
 Reduction of amenities
 Loss of aesthetic beauty
 Impacts on the sensitive habitats
 Sources of pollution

Land-based sources
 Agricultural run-off

 Municipal and industrial wastes

Sea-based sources
 Oceanic dumping

 Offshore oil spills

 Contd..
Point and Non-Point Sources
Point source – refers to a single identifiable source of pollutants eg.
effluent outfall

Non-point source – refers to diffuse source of pollutants eg. Acid rain,

dust storms POINT
SOURCES
Rural homes
NONPOINT SOURCES

Cropland
Animal feedlot
Urban streets

Factory

Suburban
developmen
t

Wastewater
treatment
plant
 Types of pollution

Discrete vs. Chronic Pollution

 Discrete (short term) – eg. an oil spill, the effects of which

diminish with time
 Chronic (long term) – eg. nutrient input, effluent discharge
 Types of pollution Contd..

Oil
(Petroleum
hydrocarbons)

Eutrophication
Metals

Conservative
Halogenated
Pollution
hydrocarbons
Thermal

Radioactive

Litter &
Plastic debris
 Oil pollution

Oil pollution is mostly used to

describe marine oil spills, where oil
is released into the ocean or coastal
waters.

Oil spills are due to the following:

 crude oil from tankers

 offshore platforms

 drilling rigs and wells

 spills of refined petroleum

products (such as gasoline, diesel)
 spill of any oily refuse or waste
oil
 Oil pollution Contd..

Sources

2%
Industrial waste
3% 15%
Refineries/Terminals
7%
Natural sources
10% 62% Tanker operations
Tanker accidents
Other shipping
1%
Offshore

Source: UNEP
 Oil pollution Contd..

Fate
 When oil is spilled on sea it spreads
over the surface to form a thin film
– called oil slick
 Light oil spreads faster than heavy
wax oil
 Low molecular weight fractions
evaporate
 Water soluble components dissolve
 Non-water soluble components
emulsify and forms a viscous mass
– “chocolate mousse”
 Heavy residues form tar balls
 Oil pollution Contd..

Fate

Tar balls

Chocolate mousse
 Oil pollution Contd..

Impacts
 Effects – Impairment of marine life
 Plankton, esp. neuston at highest
risk – exposed to water soluble
components leaching from oil
 Fixed vegetation –Sea grass beds–
killed or flowering inhibited
 In Mangroves – lenticels clogged
with oil oxygen level in sediments
drops – death
 Sea birds –buoyancy and thermal
insulation lost
 Oil pollution Contd..

Impacts

 Commercial damage
 Mortality of fish, reduction
in catch
 Death of fish eggs and
larvae
 Tourism – becomes
nuisance – avoided by beach
goers – loss of revenue
 Loss of sensitive marine
habitats – loss of flora and
fauna
 Eutrophication

“The enrichment of water by nutrients,

especially nitrogen and/or phosphorus,
causing an accelerated growth of algae
and higher forms of plant life to produce
an undesirable disturbance to the balance
of organisms present in the water and to
the quality of water concerned”
- OSPAR (Oslo/Paris convention for the Protection of the
Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic)
 Contd..
Eutrophication

Sources
 Wastewater effluent (municipal and
industrial)
 Runoff and leachate from waste
disposal systems
 Runoff from agriculture/irrigation
Runoff from pasture and range
 Runoff from mines, oil fields,
unsewered industrial sites
 Overflows of combined storm and
sanitary sewers
 Untreated sewage
 Contd..
Eutrophication

Impacts

 Over-productivity
 Reduction in phytoplankton
species diversity
 Growth of harmful algal
blooms
 Reduction in dissolved oxygen
content
 Anoxia and mass mortalities of
marine organisms
 Contd..
Eutrophication

Global map of dead zones related to human-caused eutrophication

(Scientific American, 2008)
 Eutrophication Contd..
An example of Marine outfalls in Tarut Bay
Safwa STP Sanabis STP

Awamiya STP & Nasira Agricultural Jaruadiyah STP

Majidia Agricultural Discharge Anak South Agriculture discharge Anak North Agricultural Discharge
 Eutrophication Contd..
Total estimated discharges (m3/day)
 Eutrophication Contd..

PME Receiving body Water Quality Standards

Parameter Unit Red Sea Arabian Gulf

Industrial Industrial
(C3) (C3)

Water Quality Parameters

TKN mg/l 5 5
Inorganic Nitrogen mg/l 2 2
(Nitrite & Nitrate)
Total Phosphorus mg/l 1 1
Dissolved oxygen mg/l >3 >5
BOD mg/l 15 20
 Eutrophication Contd..

Discharge Parameters (mean for 2006-2007)

Discharge Flow Rate Ammonia BOD pH TKN
(30 day avg.) (m3/day) (mg/L) (mg/L) (units) (mg/L)
PME
Allowable Effluent 1.0 25 6-9 5
Level
Al Jesh STP 15,161 16.52 61.96 - 20.19
Anak-North 42,422 - - 3.61 -
Anak-South 31,882 - - 3.65 -
Awamiya STP 17,188 17.02 64.17 - 20.22
Dammam STP 230,128 13.72 22.58 7.45 16.51
Jaruadiyah STP 65,736 13.06 3.23 - -
Joyaima GP - 6.55 8.03 9.14
Majidia 8,510 - - 3.61 -
Nasira Plant 10,238 - - 3.63 -
Ras Tanura Refinery 137,908 - - 7.74 -
Safwa STP 14,265 2.65 4.17 7.08 -
Sanabis STP 23,988 16.54 63.50 - 21.11

In excess of PME standards for direct discharge to receiving waters for a 30 day average.
 Conservative pollutants - Metals

 A heavy metal is a member of a loosely-defined subset of

elements that exhibit metallic properties.

 It mainly includes the transition metals, some metalloids,

lanthanides, and actinides.

 There is an alternative term for heavy metal and is called as

toxic metal
 The major sources of metals are:
 Natural sources

 Manmade sources
 Contd..
Conservative pollutants - Metals

Natural Sources
 Erosion of ore-bearing rocks
 Atmospheric inputs - wind blown
dust
 Volcanic activity
 Forest fires
 Riverine inputs into oceans
 Contd..
Conservative pollutants - Metals

Manmade Sources
 Industrial discharge
 Sewage
 Re-suspension of sediments by dredging and trenching
 Contd..
Conservative pollutants - Metals

World-wide emissions (Clark, 2001)

Metal Natural sources Anthropogenic
(in thousand sources
tonnes/year) (in thousand
tonnes/year)
Arsenic 12 18
Cadmium 1.3 7.6
Copper 28 35
Lead 12 332
Nickel 30 56
Zinc 45 132
 Contd..
Conservative pollutants - Metals

Impacts
Arsenic (As)
 Phytoplankton most sensitive & accumulate from water
column
 Higher trophic levels accumulate via food.

Cadmium (Cd)
 Divalent cadmium is more toxic

 Tends to bioaccumulate

Lead (Pb)
 Forms strong complex with clay and suspended material

 Bioaccumulates in most marine organisms – no

significant problems.
 Contd..
Conservative pollutants - Metals

An example of Mercury pollution in Minamata Bay, Japan (1953-1960)

Source
Pollution from plastic plant- dumped
mercuric chloride into the bay
Impact
 Shellfishes contaminated with
mercury
 People who consumed shellfish
severely affected
 43 dead and 700 permanently
disabled
 Bay is still unusable for fishing and
shell fishing
 Impacts of metal pollution by
Bioaccumulation and Biomagnification
 Bioaccumulation

 Increase in concentration of a substance(s) in an organism or a

part of that organism
 The affected organism has a higher concentration of the
substance than the concentration in the organism’s
surrounding environment
 Not excreted or metabolised and failure of the target organ
 Bioaccumulation

An example of bioaccumulation in Arabic Gulf

 Biomagnification

 Also called bioamplification

 Increase in concentration of a substance in a food chain,
not an organism
 Conservative pollutants –
Halogenated hydrocarbons

 Hydrocarbons containing chlorine, fluorine, bromine or

iodine

 Differs from petroleum hydrocarbons – not degraded by

chemical oxidation or by bacteria

 Low molecular weight compounds

– eg., Dichloroethane, Freons etc.
 High molecular weight compounds
– eg., DDT, Drins, PCBs
 Contd..
Conservative pollutants –
Halogenated hydrocarbons
Sources
Aerial transport
 Aerial spraying of pesticides as aerosols – travel great
distances

Freshwater inputs
 Rain washing of pesticides carried into sea by rivers

 Silt from flood

Direct inputs
 By industrial outfalls – especially by Pesticide manufacturing
companies.
 Contd..
Conservative pollutants –
Halogenated hydrocarbons
Impacts
 Low solubility in water persist for long durations

 Fat-soluble , so incorporated into the tissue of marine

organisms and sediments

 Lethal to the animal

 Possibility of transmission through food webs – established in

a number of animals
 Thermal pollution

 Thermal pollution is the degradation of water quality by any

process that changes ambient water temperature.

Outfall from Qurrayah power plant, Saudi Arabia

 Contd..
Thermal pollution

Sources
 Industrial wastewater
 Power plant discharges
 Desalination plant discharges
 Urban runoff
 Contd..
Thermal pollution

Impacts
 Thermal shock
 Decrease in dissolved oxygen
 Increase in photosynthesis
 Increase in metabolic rate of fish
 Increase in oxygen consumption
 Radioactive pollution

 Radioactive wastes are usually by-products of nuclear

power generation and other applications of research and
medicine.

 Radioactive waste is hazardous to human health

 Pollution due to radioactive wastes – Radioactive

pollution
 Contd..
Radioactive pollution

Sources
 Weapons testing – Testing of
nuclear weapons – when
exploded underwater release
fission products and isotopes

 Liquid wastes – Discharge from

the cooling water of nuclear
reactors

 Solid wastes – Dumping of

radioactive wastes in Sea (now
no longer practiced).
 Contd..
Radioactive pollution

Impacts
 Highly lethal - Even low doses causes fatal damage

 Possibility of bioaccumulation – especially in algae and

bivalves
eg. Porphyra near a nuclear power plant location
had 10 times more caesium-137 than in the
surrounding waters
 Litter and Plastics pollution

 Marine litter, is human created

waste that has deliberately or
accidentally become afloat in a
the sea or ocean.

 It tends to accumulate at the

centre of gyres and on
coastlines, frequently washing
aground, when it is known as
beach litter or tidewrack.
 Contd..
Litter and Plastics pollution

Sources
 Up to 80% of the pollution is land-based.
 A wide variety of anthropogenic artifacts can
become marine debris
 Plastic Bags, Balloons, Buoys etc.
 Contd..
Litter and Plastics pollution

Impacts
 Many animals that live on or in the sea consume flotsam by
mistake, as it often looks similar to their natural prey
 Blocks the passage of food and causing death through
starvation or infection.
 Tiny floating particles also resemble zooplankton, which
can lead filter feeders to consume them and cause them to
enter the ocean food chain.
 In samples taken from the North Pacific Gyre in 1999 by
the Algalita Marine Research Foundation, the mass of
plastic exceeded that of zooplankton by a factor of six.
 Solution to pollution

 Reduce input of toxic pollutants

 Treat sewage primary, secondary and tertiary treatment
 Ban dumping of wastes and raw sewage in nthe sea
 Ban ocean dumping of sludge and hazardous dredged material
 Protect sensitive areas from development, oil drilling, and oil
shipping
 Regulate coastal development