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018. Marine Pollution. Marine Pollution. Marine Pollutants. Petroleum hydrocarbons Plastics Pesticides Heavy metals Sewage Radioactive waste Thermal effluents. Pollutants Entering the Ocean. Litter 5%. Industrial wastewater 5%. Offshore oil 10%. Marine transportation 10%.
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018 Marine Pollution
Marine Pollutants • Petroleum hydrocarbons • Plastics • Pesticides • Heavy metals • Sewage • Radioactive waste • Thermal effluents
Pollutants Entering the Ocean Litter 5% Industrial wastewater 5% Offshore oil 10% Marine transportation 10% Air pollutants 20% Farm runoff 20%
Petroleum Hydrocarbons Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge 100,000 gallons jet fuel spilled 2003.
Petroleum Hydrocarbons Casitas Pearl & Hermes Atoll 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 Estimated 206 million gallons spilled
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
Relative amts of petroleum in the ocean: River runoff 31.1% Tanker operations 21.8% Coastal facilities 13.1% Atmospheric fallout 9.8% Natural seepage 9.8% Other transportation activities 9.8% Tanker accidents 3.3% Offshore petroleum production 1.3%
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 Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument
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
Marine pollution: nets and plastic debris Laysan Island
Marine pollution: nets and plastic debris Bits and pieces of plastic are collected at sea and deposited on the Laysan Lake shoreline
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
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
Coral Bleaching healthy coral: zooxanthellae in tissue of polyp bleached coral: zooxanthellae expelled from tissue (reversible) dead coral: skeleton covered in algae
Coral Bleaching Thermal Effluents and Coral Bleaching
Some causes of coral bleaching • Unusually high or low temperatures • Unusually high or low salinity • High amounts of visible or ultraviolet light • Sedimentation • High levels of nutrients (sewage, etc.) • High levels of toxins (pesticides, etc.)
Ocean Acidification No mortality Coral calcification rate reduced 15-20% Skeletal density decreased, branches thinner No evidence of acclimation
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
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
Atomic Testing Coral reef at Enewetak Atoll, former nuclear test site.