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| | | Ocean Dumping and Ship Wastes |
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| | This section deals with ocean dumping and ship wastes. It includes nuclear waste disposal, sewage outfalls, land-based materials or those that derive from shipping, such as from cargo transport ships and passenger ships. | | | | About 80-90% of the material dumped at sea results from dredging and currently amounts to hundreds of millions of tons a year. Of the total material dredged, probably two-thirds is associated with operations to keep harbours, rivers and other waterways from silting up. The other third involves new works. Future dredging operations and the requirement for ocean disposal are expected to follow current trends. The ocean disposal of dredged material represents only 20-22% of the total dredged and the remainder is mostly dumped in internal waters, or placed on land for disposal or productive purposes. Approximately 10% of dredged sediments are heavily contaminated from a variety of sources including shipping, industrial and municipal discharges, and land runoff. Typical contaminants include heavy metals, such as cadmium, mercury and chromium; hydrocarbons, such as oil; organochlorines such as pesticides; and nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorous. Disposal at sea of these materials carries the possibility of acute or chronic toxic effects on marine organisms, and potential contamination of human food sources. | | | | It was recognized that ships, especially oil powered ships, could cause pollution and both the United Kingdom and the United States introduced legislation in the 1920s to curb discharges of oil resulting from operations such as tank cleaning. Attempts to tackle the problem at an international level were unsuccessful, however, and the outbreak of World Wear II resulted in the problem being deferred. The potential for oil to pollute was finally recognised by the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution of the Sea by Oil, 1954. The Convention provided for certain functions to be undertaken by the International Maritime Organization. OILPOL 54 prohibited the dumping of oily wastes within a certain distance from land and in 'special areas' where the danger to the environment was especially acute.
See More... | | | | |
 | | | | | Long-Term Effects of Oil Pollution More Significant Than Previously Believed
by Charles H. Peterson, SeaWeb 11 February 2004 | |
| | A paper in the journal Science has challenged the widely-held assumption that oil spills, such as the one that contaminated Alaska's Prince William Sound almost fifteen years ago, have only short-term impacts on coastal marine ecosystems. The review synthesized results of a series of studies of the impact of the March 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound, and found, says lead author Charles H. Peterson of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, that "oil has persisted in surprisingly large quantities for years ... in subsurface reservoirs under coarse intertidal sediments. This oil was sequestered in conditions where weathering by wave action, light and bacteria was inhibited, and toxicity remained for a decade or more." | |
Read more at http://www.seaweb.org/resources/74update/oil.html.
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