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%
 Petroleum Hydrocarbons

Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge

100,000 gallons jet fuel spilled 2003.
 Petroleum Hydrocarbons

Casitas
NOAA Marine debris vessel
Annual collection of 100 metric tons
of debris
July 5, 2005
Debris cleanup ship grounded 7/5/2005
has aboard 30,000 gallons of diesel fuel, 3,000 gallons
of gasoline and 200 gallons of lubricating oil
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
renowned fisheries and shellfish industry.
incident

sinking

Lifeboat w/ dead bird

Persian Gulf War (1991)
• 240 million gallons of oil spilled
BP offshore drilling rig (Deepwater Horizon)
April 20, 2010; 50 miles off Louisiana
Spilling 5,000 barrels/day = 200,000 gal/day
Containing oil spills:
• Floating booms- contain oil and then pump into
other ship
• Burning oil off
• Chemical dispersants
• Bioremediation- bacteria
Containing oil spills:
• Hair Booms
 Plastics

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

year after ingesting or being trapped in plastic debris
• WHOI 1987 survey off N.E. coast of U.S.: found 46,000
pieces of plastic floating on surface
 North Pacific Subtropical Gyre
• “Great Pacific Garbage Patch”

• Estimate: 46,000 pieces of floating garbage/mi2.

North Pacific Subtropical Gyre

135° to 155°W and 35° to 42°N

 North Pacific Subtropical Gyre

Great Pacific Garbage Patch- Good Morning America 2010

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLrVCI4N67M&feature=player_embedded

http://marinedebris.noaa.gov/info/patch.html#6
Marine pollution: nets and plastic debris
Marine pollution: nets and plastic debris
Laysan Island
hypersaline
lake (120-
140o/oo)

Large bird rookery and guano mining

In 1857, reported 800,000 birds.
Marine pollution: nets and plastic debris
Laysan
albatross

Laysan
ducks

Sooty tern Laysan finch

Laysan Island
Bits and pieces of plastic are collected at sea and deposited on
the Laysan Lake shoreline
Albatross Chick
2004-2007
Barber’s Point
 Japan Tsunami 2011
Prediction of Marine Debris Drifting Trajectories

Hawaii

http://www.hawaii247.com/2011/04/07/tsunami-2011-japan-debris-likely-to-hit-hawaii-twice/
 Nontoxic Chemical Spills

• Sept. 10, 2013

• 233,000 gallons molasses spilled (1400 tons)
• Matson Pier on the Sand Island side of Honolulu Harbor
westward into Ke’ehi Lagoon
• 30,000 fish dead
Biomagnification
 Pesticides, Herbicides & other
organochlorines

• PCBs
• DDT

Bioaccumulation biomagnification
 Toxic Metals

Heavy metals resist biodegredation

Natural occurrence- volcanoes

• Mercury (Hg)
• Copper (Cu)
• Lead (Pb)
• Cadmium (Cd)
 Mercury
Minamata Disease (1953-1960)– Japan
 Copper
• Tributyl tin (antifouling paint for boats)
• Banned in U.S. 1980s
• Acts as an immunosuppressor
• Accumulations unusually high in small whales
• May be associated with strandings
 Lead
• Leaded gasoline invented
1920’s
• Enters water from
automobile exhaust, runoff
and atmospheric fallout of
industrial waste and
landfills, mines, dumps
• Leaded gas banned in US
in 1980’s has reduced
pollution in ocean

Bioaccumulation  biomagnification
 Point Source Pollution
Sewage

• Causes disease outbreaks

• Contributes to eutrophication
6/13/2006
Raw sewage dump in Ala Wai. Beaches Close!

48 million gallons
Why?
• 40 straight days of rain
• 42-inch pressurized underground pipe
broke during heavy rains
Disease
 Sewage Discharge and
Agricultural Runoff
• nutrient enrichment of coastal waters
• physiological consequences on corals
• ecological consequences
– phytoplankton bloom reduces light
penetration
– benthic seaweeds overgrow and smother
corals
Nutrients and Algae Growth
Atomic Testing
Coral reef at Enewetak Atoll, former nuclear test site.

Atomic Testing
 Ocean Dumping USSR

total > 10 million Curies

Three Mile Island (‘79) = 17 Curies

Chernobyl (‘86) = 100 million Curies

Great
US Britain
Other
Switzerland
Soviet Union’s Atomic Dumping Ground

Arctic Ocean

Moscow

Russia
Thermal Effluents

Power plants
Non-Point Source Pollution

Constructed 1920-28 to
Ala Wai reduce mosquitoes, but failed.
Sediment
Runoff
Sediment Plume Entering the Ocean
(Maui)
Corals Smothered in Sediment
Pflueger at Pila’a, Kauai
$7.5 million for Clean Water Act violations
 Types of Non-Point
Source Pollution

• sediments from coastal urban and

agricultural development
• nutrients from detergents, fertilizers, leaky
septic tanks, and domesticated animals
• pesticides (home use, agricultural, & golf
courses)
 Types of Non-Point
Source Pollution

• automobile wastes such as

combusted motor oil, tire rubber,
brake pad dust, coolant, etc.
• waste water from swimming pools
and aquaculture ponds
Other Wastes
1989
Net Damage
French Frigate Shoals (2001)

Kure Atoll
Sept. 28, 2007
Kamilo Beach
Big Island
 Munitions Dumping

Millions of pounds of mustard gas canisters were

jettisoned into the Atlantic Ocean off New Jersey (1964)
and elsewhere. (Photo: The U.S. Army)
 Munitions Dumping

1940’s to 1972 off

west coast of Oahu
 Inquiry
1. Define bioaccumulation and biomagnification.
2. Discuss the process of managing an oil spill.
3. Distinguish between point source and
nonpoint source pollution.
4. What may result when eutrophication occurs?