Marine Pollutants

Petroleum hydrocarbons Plastics Pesticides Heavy metals Sewage Radioactive waste Thermal effluents

Petroleum Hydrocarbons

Oil drums on a beach in Pulau Redang, Malaysia.

Petroleum Hydrocarbons

Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge 100,000 gallons jet fuel spilled 2003.

Petroleum Hydrocarbons

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

Casitas NOAA Marine debris vessel Annual collection of 100 metric tons of debris

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

Relative amts of petroleum in the ocean: River runoff Tanker operations Coastal facilities Atmospheric fallout Natural seepage Other transportation activities Tanker accidents Offshore petroleum production 31.1% 21.8% 13.1% 9.8% 9.8% 9.8% 3.3% 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 155W and 35 to 42N

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

Laysan Island

hypersaline lake (120-140o/oo) Large bird rookery and guano mining In 1857, reported 800,000 birds.

Sooty tern

Laysan albatross

Laysan finch

Laysan Island

Bits and pieces of plastic are collected at sea and deposited on the Laysan Lake shoreline

A dead Laysan Albatross chick with seven bottle tops in its gullet. Adult Albatross feed on flying fish eggs that the adult fish attach to floating debris.

2004-2007 Barbers 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/

Pesticides & Herbicides

Designed to kill a variety of pests, such as mosquitoes, agricultural pests and weeds.

Toxin enters food chain and effects non targeted species

Pesticide toxicity often effects human health Rachael Carson- Silent Spring

Bioaccumulation biomagnification

Pesticides
Halogenated hydrocarbons or organochlorines: Include DDT and PCBs, which are slow to biodegrade

Dichloro-diphenyl-trichloro-ethane (DDT):
used as a pesticide from 1939-late 1960s fat soluble compound the worlds production has substantially decreased since it was banned in the West detected in mud of deep sea and snow & ice of Antarctica

Polychloronated biphenyls (PCBs)

produced since 1944 banned in U.S. by 1979 used in production of electrical equipment, paints, plastics, adhesives, and coating compounds found everywhere in the ocean released in env. by unregulated incineration of discarded products
DDT & PCBs affects: copepod and oyster development death of shrimp and a variety of fish

Biomagnification

Toxic Metals
Hg, Pb, Cd, Cu Heavy metals resist biodegradation

Natural occurrence- volcanoes

Mercury (Hg)- toxic when attached to short carbonchain alkyl group, strongly neurotoxic, birthdefects Lead (Pb)- from batteries, sewage, fuel additives, neurotoxic effects, mental development in children Cadmium (Cd)- from batteries, sewage, electroplating factories, effects on human kidney function, bone deformities

Heavy Metals
Minamata Disease (1953-1960) Japan Industrial pollution from plastic plant; dumped mercuric chloride into bay Ingestion of Hg tainted shellfish 43 dead and 700 permanently disabled Symptoms: kidney damage, neuromuscular deterioration, birth defects,insanity, death Bay is still unusable for fishing and shell fishing Surviving victims received $24,200 as settlement

Cu: 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 Pac Baroness freighter carrying 21,000 metric tons of finely powdered Cu sank in 448 m in 1987 of coast of central CA Tainted water detected 41km down current of wreck Major fishing zone for rock cod and Dover sole

Pb: Leaded gasoline invented 1920s Enters water from automobile exhaust, runoff and atmospheric fallout of industrial waste and landfills, mines, dumps Leaded gas banned in US in 1980s 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
total > 10 million Curies
Three Mile Island (79) = 17 Curies Chernobyl (86) = 100 million Curies

USSR

US Other Switzerland

Great Britain

Soviet Unions Atomic Dumping Ground

Arctic Ocean

Moscow Russia

Thermal Effluents

Power plants

Non-Point Source Pollution

Ala Wai

Constructed 1920-28 to reduce mosquitoes, but failed.

Sediment Runoff

Sediment Plume Entering the Ocean

(Maui)

Corals Smothered in Sediment

Pflueger at Pilaa, 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

1940s 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?