Oceans Final

Sewage Effluent

Most urban sewer systems in the United States were built in the late 1800s and early 1900s these systems carried raw sewage to the closest body of water: river lake or ocean Since then the systems have grown by adding to or combing old systems building new systems and adding treatment facilities Until 1972 the law allowed the discharge of anything into a body of water until the water was polluted IN 1972 the Federal Clean Water Act in an effort to make U.S. Water fishable and swimmable mandated the upgrade of sewage treatment to the secondary treatment by 1977

Biological Invaders

A combination of physical and biological barriers sets the geographical limits of a species These limits have changed with time as climate patters have altered and as plate tectonics have shifted the configurations of the oceans and continents For example the opening of the Bering Strait between Asia and Nth America allowed interchange between the marine organisms of the North Pacific and the Arctic Basins and the separation of South Africa from Antarctica allowed the currents associated with he Southern Oceans west wind drift to carry organism from one cold water ocean to anotehr When humans began to cross oceans they carried many organisms plant and animal intentionally and unintentionally More than three and a half centuries ago settlers and traders coming to the North American continent brought with them large communities of widely varied organisms that had attached to and bored into the wooden hulls of their ships in the harbors or bays where their joinery began Many of these organisms transported across the oceans in this way were certainly swept from the ships sides by the waves and currents but a few invaders were present when the ships anchored at their journeys ends Hundreds of years later there is no way of knowing when the first European barnacles or periwinkle sails began to colonize the easter coasts of United States these two organisms are now considered typical of this region The steel hills of todays ships do not carry such communities for they are protected by antifouling paints and the ships move through the water at speeds sufficient enough to sweep away many of the organisms carried by wooden hulls However these ships carry ballast water that is loaded an unloaded to preserve to stability of the ship as it unloads and loads cargo These vessels rapidly transport basalt water and its population of small floating organisms across natural oceanic borders Some biological invaders remain unnoticed for many years others begin almost immediately to seriously disrupt the ecology of their adopted areas In 1985 an Asian Clam was discovered in a northern arm of San Francisco Bay This clam was previously unknown in the area and appears to have arrived in its juvenile form in the ballast water of a cargo ship from China During the next 6 years the clam spread southward into the bay and formed dense cosines IN 1990 a second intruder the European Green Crab was recognized in the southern part of San Francis Cay IN 1972 the ballast water of a ship from the coast of America carried a jelly like organisms known as a comb jelly Fish and seaweed can also be transported to areas Oceanographers and biologist realize that an ecological revolution is taking place in estuaries and bays along the rocky shores of all the continents This is called biological pollution Others are increasing alarmed by the breakdown of natural barriers The zebra muscles into the Great Lakes sounded the alarm for the United States They passed the NANPCS This law the United States adopted voluntary regulations for exchanging ballast water on the high seas for vessels bound for the Great Lakes Controlling ballast water till not close all doors to invading marine species and will be costly However it will lead to fewer hh

Flotsam

A type of marine pollution Anything that is floating at sea often refers to marine wreckage or cargo

Human impacts through time

Although we are perhaps more aware of our influence on the ocean today, this is not a new issue Human impacts have however, increased dramatically with rising human population over the last 150-300 years As part of the Census of Marine Life and other scientific programs, scientists have evaluated the role humans have played in modifying the oceans over the course of documented history There is strong evidence for overfishing starting with freshwater fish at least 1000 years ago This increasing pressure on freshwater fishing led tot he expansion of marine harvests with subsequent declines of coastal habitats worldwide It has also been suggested that overfishing is just the first and most obvious of a range of impacts human have on ocean environments These include increasing pollution, eutrophication, physical destruction of habitat outbreak of disease and introduce action of invasive species This sequence koi events is linked to expansion of human populations As a result the pattern of ocean exploitation is similar regardless of when it started and some regions of the ocean more impacted that others Today no area is unaffected by Hyman influence The most heavily populated regions with the longest history of human civilization are highly impacted by a number of factors as predicted Although humans started to change marine ecosystems thousands oaf years ago our cumulative impacts have now reached every region of the worlds oceans

Eastern Pacific garbage Patch

An area in the Eastern part of the Pacific Ocean where floating plastic and other trash is concentrated by surface currents

Jetsam

Anything intentionally discarded at sea such as solid waste

Overfishing and Incidental Catch

Around the world too many fishing boats are taking too many fish The section this is not a new issue but the diminishing fish populations are now victims of our ability to harvest fish from virtually anywhere in the oceans at an unprecedented rate Decline fisheries are the result of overfishing- The removal of fish from a population faster than the population can reproduce and Incidental catch- the removal of fish or other marine organisms that were not the intended targets of fishing The FAO tracks global fisheries practices and reported that for 2008 every person on the planet consumed an average of 17.2 kg of fish per year

Eutrophication

Artificial enrichment of waters with a previously scare nutrient The over enrichment of waters with biologically important nutrients that leads to excessive algal growth

Maximum sustainable yield

Current estimates of this MSY Are between 100-120 million metric tons per year The maximum fishery biomass that can be removed annually while maintaining a stable standing stock At the time global fisheries production was about 20 million metric tons or 20% of the MSY This value has increased steadily until it plateaued in the early 1990s Between 2000 and 2010 humans harvested between 89-94 million metric tons In other words we have nearly reached the MSY for global fisheries This suggests that humans are removing more than the MSY The FAO estimates that 80% of the worlds fish stocks are fully exploited or overexploited The worlds oceans are being overfished

Eutrophication and Hypoxia

Each year off the mouth of the Mississippi River a low oxygen or hypoxic area forms in the northern Gulf of Mexico It begins to appear in February, peaks in the summer, and dissipates in the fall when storms strip up the gulf waters an increase mixing It has been called the dead zone because the oxygen level in the water is too low to support most marine life Fully oxygenated waters contain as much as 12 parts per million of oxygen Once oxygen falls to 5 ppm, fish and other aquatic animals can have trouble breathing As the dead zone grows in size and oxygen levels drop highly mobile organisms such as fish and shrimp flee the area More slowly moving bottom dwellers such as crabs snails and clams and worms can be overtaken by the hypoxic waters and suffocate Sediment dwellers that can't leave a hypoxic zone being dying at around 2 ppm In some dead zones oxygen levels remain near 0.5 ppm or lower months The low oxygen water does not just hug the bottom ic can affect 80% of the water column in shallow areas extending upward to within a few meters of the surface

Indirect Impacts.

Fish populations are not the only casualties other marine animals and marine birds are being affected as they compete for their share of the catch There is increasing evidence that overfishing has other long term consequences For both sport and commercial fishing the largest and oldest fish are usually targeted first There has been 90% of the large fish have been removed from the oceans This can also cause shifts in food webs as apex predators are removed Scientists have also shown a gradual decreased since the 1950s toward more fishing pressure at lower trophic levels This phenomenon is called fishing down the food web Recent scientific studies suggest that fishing pressure is more complicated than simply removing fish from successively lower trophic levels hh The Trend toward increasing fishing pressure and dealing size and abundance of many fish is evident

Fishing down the food web

Fishing and its impacts revelry depleted higher tropic levels Fishermen must fish on less desirable species at lower trophic levels The trend toward fishing on lower trophic levels has been termed this

Boston Harbor Sewage

For years Boston Harbor has received sewage effluent in various stages of treatment from an enormous urban area and the harbor was seriously polluted Construction of new sewage collection systems and a sewage treatment plant began in 1989 at a cost of 3.8 billion dollars Important comments of the new Deer Island Sewage Treatment Plant have been placed in operation in a series of steps since January 1995 The plant was constructed to remove human household business and industrial pollutants from wastewater that originates in homes and businesses in forty three differed communities with a total population of 2.5 million in the greater Boston Area It is the second largest sewage treatment plant in the United States The plants peak capacity is 1270 million gallons of wastewater per day Average daily flow is about 390 mid After the sewage is treated int he plant it is discharged through an outfall tunnel b beneath the sea floor The Boston Harbor cleanup has been a tremendous success story Since completion toxins and waste products have declined in the sediments, beaches have reopened and marine life from lobsters to whales has returned to the area

Hypoxic

Having low oxygen levels in the water; organisms may find survival in a hypoxic environment difficult or impossible.

The Four Oil Spills

Four oil spills between 1978 and 2010 have become ecological landmarks These are the sinking of the Amoco Cadiz The grounding of the Exxon Valdez The discharge of crude oil into the Persian Gulf during the Gulf War And the Deepwater Horizon blowout in the Gulf of Mexico

Plastic Trash

It is estimated that every year more than 135000 tons of plastic trash have been routinely dumped by naval merchant and fishing ships The National Academy of Sciences estimates that the commercial fishing industry yearly loses or discards about 149000 tons of fishing gear made mainly of plastic and dumps another 26,000 tons of plastic packaging materials Recreational and commercial vessels and oil and gas drilling platforms add their share A total of 7 million tons of cargo and crew wastes were added during each year of the 1980s Plastics are a worldwide problem they come for many sources and are distributed b y the currents to even the remotes ocean areas IN 1960 the US production of plastics was 3 million tons 31 million tons of plastic waste was generated in 2010 with more than 50 million tons of plastic produced annually Plastic is inexpensive strong and durable these characteristics make it the most widely used manufacturing material in the world today and a major environmental problem Thousands of marine animals are crippled and killed each year by these materials Lost lobster and crab trips made entirely or partially of plastic continue to trap animals one year 25% of the 96,000 traps that had been set off of Floridas western coast were lost Seabirds die entangled in plastic fishing line both sea birds and marine mammals sallow plastics Popoises and whales have been suffocated by plastic bags and sheeting and the sheeting clings to coral and to rocky beaches smothering plant and animal life Fish are trapped in discarded netting sea turtles eat plastic bags and die Plastics are as great a source of morality to marine organisms as oil spills toxic wastes and heavy metals The Marine Plastic Pollution and Control Act of 1987 is the US law that implements and international convention for the prevention of pollution from ships This law prohibits the dumping of plastic debris everywhere in the oceans other types of trash may be dumped at specific distances from shore and ports are required to provide waste facilities for debris The US Coast Guard is the agency that must enforce this law in US waters no international enforcement exists Many plastics take hundreds of years to degrade in the environment Making matters worse plastics often break down into smaller and smaller pieces but still remain in the ocean This flotsam can be concentrated by the surface currents into large floating patches Recently the Eastern Pacific garbage patch has attracted a lot of attention to this problem The Pacific gyre circulation tends to concentrate these floating bits of plastic and other debris forming patches of elevated plastic concentration that expand and contract in response to the ocean currents There is some debate about exactly how large the patch is but there is no question that plastics are concentrated in these regions Because most plastics break down into smaller pieces over time it is not possible to simply remove the plastics from these regions Making things worse as plastics degrade particularly Styrofoam a toxic brew of chemicals is realized that includes bisphenol A BPA The small bits of plastic act to concentrate other contaminates including PCBs and DDT making the small bits of plastic thousands to millions of times more toxic than the same chemicals in seawater Eventually the plastic debris can sink A 2010 study of the SCB documented about 3% of the ocean floor was covered in plastic Today there is no region of the worlds oceans where plastics our chemicals associated with plastics cannot be found It may be that only people educated to act responsibly will be able to reduce the tide of plastics pollution rising around the world

Human expansion

Human expansion increases human impacts on the marine environment Coastal ecosystems have been impacted by a number of human induced changes Overfishing is almost always the first impact to be observed, followed by some or all of the other impacts ultimately leading to alterations of marine ecosystems

Hazards of plastic trash in the oceans

IN 1960 the US production of plastics was 3 million tons 31 million tons of plastic waste was generated in 2010 with more than 50 million tons of plastic produced annually Plastic is inexpensive strong and durable these characteristics make it the most widely used manufacturing material in the world today and a major environmental problem Thousands of marine animals are crippled and killed each year by these materials Lost lobster and crab trips made entirely or partially of plastic continue to trap animals one year 25% of the 96,000 traps that had been set off of Floridas western coast were lost Seabirds die entangled in plastic fishing line both sea birds and marine mammals sallow plastics Popoises and whales have been suffocated by plastic bags and sheeting and the sheeting clings to coral and to rocky beaches smothering plant and animal life Fish are trapped in discarded netting sea turtles eat plastic bags and die Plastics are as great a source of morality to marine organisms as oil spills toxic wastes and heavy metals The Marine Plastic Pollution and Control Act of 1987 is the US law that implements and international convention for the prevention of pollution from ships This law prohibits the dumping of plastic debris everywhere in the oceans other types of trash may be dumped at specific distances from shore and ports are required to provide waste facilities for debris The US Coast Guard is the agency that must enforce this law in US waters no international enforcement exists Many plastics take hundreds of years to degrade in the environment Making matters worse plastics often break down into smaller and smaller pieces but still remain in the ocean This flotsam can be concentrated by the surface currents into large floating patches Recently the Eastern Pacific garbage patch has attracted a lot of attention to this problem The Pacific gyre circulation tends to concentrate these floating bits of plastic and other debris forming patches of elevated plastic concentration that expand and contract in response to the ocean currents There is some debate about exactly how large the patch is but there is no question that plastics are concentrated in these regions Because most plastics break down into smaller pieces over time it is not possible to simply remove the plastics from these regions Making things worse as plastics degrade particularly Styrofoam a toxic brew of chemicals is realized that includes bisphenol A BPA The small bits of plastic act to concentrate other contaminates including PCBs and DDT making the small bits of plastic thousands to millions of times more toxic than the same chemicals in seawater Eventually the plastic debris can sink A 2010 study of the SCB documented about 3% of the ocean floor was covered in plastic Today there is no region of the worlds oceans where plastics our chemicals associated with plastics cannot be found It may be that only people educated to act responsibly will be able to reduce the tide of plastics pollution rising around the world

Amoco Cadiz

In March 1978 the Amoco Cadiz lost its steering in the English Channel and broke up on the rocks of the Brittany Coast of France Gale force winds and high tides spread the oil over more than 300 km of the French Coast More than 3000 birds died oyster farms and fishing suffered severely Of the approximately 210,000 metric tons of oil spilled 30% was evaporated and was carried over the French countryside 20% was cleaned up by the army and volunteers Another 20% penetrated into the sand of the beaches to stay until winter storms washed it away 10% dissolved in the seawater and 20% sank to the sea floor in deeper water where it continued to contaminate the area for an unknown period of time

Trend in world fish catch in the last century

It is increasing

Marine Reserves

In the United States areas where fishing and other activities are prohibited

Marine pollution

In the past Earths natural waters were assumed to be infinite in their ability to absorb and remove the by products of human populations However too much use and too many wastes discharged into small an area at too rapid a rate have produced problems that cannot be ignored These discharges can and go exceed the ability of natural systems to flush themselves and consequently disperse wastes into the open ocean

Toxicant as sediments

Many toxicants reaching the coast do not remain in the water but become absorbed onto the small particles of matter suspended in the water column These particles clump together and settle out because of their increased size and toxicants become concentrated in the sediments The concentration of heavy metals in marine sediments in the SCB generally increased form 1845- 1970 until concentrations were two to four times their natural levels Improved wastewater treatment led to a dramatic decrease in the discharge of most heavy metals to the SCB from 1970 through 1990 When emission levels reached a steady state low level Two additional toxicants that can have a major impact on the environment are the pesticide DDT (dichloro-diphenylrichloroethane And PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls DDT came into wide agricultural and commercial usage in this country in the late 1940s Over the next twenty five years approximately 675,000 tons were applied domestically The peak year for use in the US was 1959 when nearly 40,000 tons were applied Form that high point usage decline steadily until 1971 After which DDT use in the United States was banned by the Environmental Protection Agency PCBs are a group of over 200 synthetic compounds some mutagenic and carcinogenic PCBs are among the most stable organic compounds known Congress passed the Toxic substances Control Act in 1976 which led to a ban in 1979 on the manufacture and use of PCBs at concentrations above 50 pp, In 1998, a global pact Protocol on Persistent Organic Pollutants was negated by the US and 28 other countries The pact requires most countries in western and Central Europe Noth America and the former Soviet Union to ban production of compounds such as DDT and PCBs

Persian Gulf

Much of the worlds crude oil comes from wells of the Persian Gulf and it must be transported the length of the gulf on its way to refineries around the world Each year a quarter of a million barrels of oil are routinely spilled into the gulfs shallow waters making it one of the worlds most polluted bodies of water However it is also an area of vigorous plant growth and supports fisheries of shrimp, mackerel, mullet, snapper, and grouper During the eight year Iran Iraq war the bombing of oil facilities produced major spills including one form an oil rig that poured out 172 metric tons per day for nearly three months but the greater catastrophe came in the 1991 Gulf War when an estimated 800,000 metric tons of crude oil gushed into gulf waters The greater oil spill to date Some of the oil was deliberately released some came from a refinery at a gulf battle site and bombing contributed additional quantities The average depth of the Persian Gulf in 40m and the circulation of its high salinity water is sluggish Changes in the wind in the weeks after the spill stopped the oil form drifting the entire length of the gulf Still some 570 km of Saudi Arabia shoreline were oiled Experts from the United States UK Netherlands Germany Australia and Japan rushed to help There is no adequate technology to cope with large spills Only 8% to 15% is recovered The onshore cleanup is often as destructive as the spill especially in wilderness situations where the numbers of people their equipment and their wastes further burden the environment The toxicity of crude oil is low and many experts consider that cleanup efforts should be concerned not with removing oil form the beaches but with moving oil seaward to prevent it form reaching the beaches Some Studies indicate that many of the cleanup methods used along shorelines cause more damage than leaving the oil to degrade naturally Large volumes of crude oil also enter the marine environment from natural seeps They are believed to be the single greatest source of oil in the marine environment

Plastics in ocean

Plastics and other floating debris are concentrated into garbage patches at the eastern and western edges of oceanic gyres

Surimi

Refined fish protein that is used to from artificial crab shrimp and scallop meat This comes from the Alaskan Pollock fishery

Fishing Pressure

Several fisheries that were once plentiful have now collapsed While others have been increasing rapidly The Alaskan pollock fishery is an example of a recent fishery that has responded to consumer demand Pollock is a bottom fish it is processed to remove fats and oils that actually give the fish flavor and a highly refined fish protein called surimi is produced

Toxicant in The United States

Some of the particulate matter that absorbs toxicants has a high organic content and forms a food source for marine creatures In this way heavy metals and organic toxicants associated with the particles find their way into the body tissues of organisms where they may accumulate and be passed on to predators Due to their mass these particulates often repost on the sea floor Thus throughout the United States toxic residues are found in estuarine bottom fish Shellfish have been found to have concentrations of heavy metals at levels that are many thousands of times over the levels found in the surrounding waters Scallops and oysters have DDT levels 90,000 times over the water concentration A classic 1967 study conducted after DDT had been sprayed on Long Island marshes to control mosquitoes documented the effect of this long lived toxin as it was concentrated by the food chain The impact of DDT on the marine environment was most apparent in bird populations DDT causes thinning of eggshells leading to reproductive failure when the shell cannot support the weight of the incubating bird DDT nearly wiped out the broken pelicans ospreys and bald eagles in large swaths of the coastal United States Since DDT was banned in the 1970 these bird populations have made a remarkable comeback from the brink of extinction A tragic example of what can happen when humans ingest organisms that had accumulated a toxin occurred between 1952 and 1960 in Minamata, Japan An estimated 200-600 tons of waste mercury from an industrial source were realized into the coastal bay from which villagers gathered their shellfish harvest The mercury formed an organic complex that was readily taken up the marine life the accumulation of mercury in the shellfish led to severe mercury poisoning and death among those eating the shellfish The physical and mental degenerative effects were especially severe on children whose mothers had eaten large amounts of shellfish during pregnancy The condition produced ins named Minamata disease Today mercury poisoning is still very much an issue Mercury contamination of sediments and water is a long lived problem and methyl mercury can bioaccumulate and biomagnify Long lived fish and apex predators such as sharks and swordfish are more likely to have bioaccumulate methyl mercury The amount of mercury in the human diet depends on both they type of fish consumed and the amount consumed over a period of time In The United States the Food and Drug Administration and the EPA recommend eating fish as part of a healthy diet but limiting consumption of moderate and high risk fish particularly for pregnant or nursing mothers and young children Considering all the pathways sources and types of materials that can be classed as toxicants or pollutants managing and eventually excluding them form the marine environment are extremely difficult and complicated As seen in this discussion Efforts to reduce the discharge of toxic materials are showing signs of success but it will take continued long term effort on the part of scientists citizens and governments to achieve a cleaner environment for the ocean world and the land world

Toxicant

Substances that degrade the environment and are harmful to organisms, including heavy metals, chemical compounds, and excessive zoncetaions of nutrients

Oil spills during the past four decades

The Amoco Cadiz The Exxon Valdez The discharge of Persian Gulf in the Gulf War The Deepwater Horizon

Marine Protected Areas

To mitigate the impact human are having on the oceans many countries have developed this These areas are created to conserve or protect some aspect of the marine environment such as protection of historical artifacts threatened and endangered species breeding grounds for Maine organisms MPAs include a wide range of legal restrictions on human activity IN soe areas fishing and other activities are completely prohibited IN the United States these are refereed to as Maine reserves IN other areas such as the National Marine Sanctuaries there are restrictions specific to each sanctuary such as limits on ship travel or banning of oil and gas exploration Globally there are almost 6000 designated MPAs ranging in size from a. few square kilometers to the Phoenix Island Protected Area which covers 400,000 square km All together MPAs still account for less than 2% of the worlds surface ocean but they serve as an important tool for protecting ocean ecosystems

Trends in Fishing Pressure

The Atlantic cod is an example of a fishery that was over exploited and subsequently collapsed Cod are bottom dwellers or ground fish They feed on small fish crab and clams They live twenty five years and mature in three to seven How could the fish that had fed the Pilgrims and produced catches of 50,000 metric tons by hand fishing a hundred years ago have failed to comply For nearly 400 years cod were fished with hand lines these gave way to long lines with hundreds of hooks and net traps in the nineteenth century Following WWII there was a virtual explosion of international fishing activities in the northwest Atlantic Between 1966 and 1976 the dashing capacity of the international fleet increased to 500% In contrast the amount of fish caught for a given level of fishing effort increased only 15% In other words despite increasingly efficient fishing fewer fish were being caught To manage this region the International committee for the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries was formed but was largely ineffective at curbing fishing pressure The United States extended its Exclusive Economic Zone from 12 to 200 miles in 1976 Now the most productive regions of the Northwest Atlantic including the Grand Banks and Georges Bank were under the national control Forcing the international fleet out of those waters Despite these legal changes overfishing continued with virtually no limits Finally in response to contended decline in catch per unit effort and fish stocks Many cod fisheries were closed The worlds most valuable fish is the Bluefin These are becoming extinct

The Dead Zone process

The Dead Zone is caused by the introduction of large amounts of nitrogen and nitrate much of it from fertilizers into the gulf by the Mississippi and Atch River This input of excess nutrients leads to eutrophication The Mississippi River alone delivers an average 580 km of fresh water to the Gulf of Mexico each year Thirty one states and half of the nations farmlands have rivers that drawn into the Mississippi Records shows that from the 1950s onward the use of fertilizers in these areas increased dramatically The amount of nitrate from fertilizer that flowed into the gulf tripled from 1960 to 1990s and the amount of another fertilizer phosphate doubled It is estimated that about 30% of the nitrogen entering the fold comes from fertilizers used in agriculture Another comes form natural soil decomposition and remainder comes from a variety of sources When nitrates are added to the water they trigger the rapid growth of tiny marine algae This phenomenon is commonly refereed to as a bloom Massive blooms can produce a biological chain reaction in which there is a corresponding increase in small animals that feed on the algae producing more plant and animal material than can be consumed by fish and some predators Billions of these small organisms die and sink to the sea floor where they decompose and are consumed by bacteria These bacteria use up oxygen in the water in the process The seasonal appearance of the dead zone was first detected in 1972 but it was not until over 20 years later that scientists began to systematically map its location The dead zone occupies different regions of the northern gulf from one year to the next making it difficult to predict exactly what areas will be affected The size of the dead zone seems to correlate to both the amount or agricultural fertilizer used in the Mississippi River and with annual changes in rainfall The hypoxia formed in 1988 bud did not persist because of a drought and very little freshwater runoff into the gulf In 2000 when dry conditions prevailed and runoff from the Mississippi River was very low the zone shrank to its smaller recorded size The dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico is not an isolated situation but it is the second largest human caused coastal dead zone in the world Dead zones have been reported from more than 400 system worldwide These regions cover at least 250,000 square km and are related to coastal eutrophication driven by riverine runoff of fertilizers and burning of fossil fuels The largest dead zone ever documented occurred in the northwestern shelf of the black sea It first formed in the 1960s with the introduction of large amounts of nutrients from fertilizers When the government supported agriculture also decreased significantly and by the Hypoix zone in the black sea disappeared for the first time IN the case of the Black Sea the Bethnic community has still not returned to its original stage more than fifteen years after hypoxic condones disappeared

Southern California

The Southern California region from Los Angles to San Diego is known as the Southern California Bight The SCB was home to almost 20 million people Ocean related tourism in this area generates an estimated 9 billion annually As important as this coastal region is to tourism it is also used for a variety of other seemingly incompatible purposes many of which result in the discharge of pollutants to coastal waters Sources of pollution include discharges from municipal wastewater facilities and power generating stations oil platforms industrial effluents and dredging operations Nineteen municipal wastewater treatment families discharge treated water directly to the SCB four of thee are very large facilities discharging more than 100 million gallons of treated water per day Historically these four facilities have been the leading source of point source contaminates to the SCB Over the past thirty years the cumulative flow from these four facilities has increased an overall 16% but the discharge of suspended solids oxygen consuming constituents often referred to as biological oxygen demand constituents or BODs and oil and grease have decreased significantly These reductions are due largely to increased and impaired treatment greater control of these materials at their source and land disposal of some solids

The Exxon Valdez

The United States experienced a large volume oil spill in 1989 when 40 km out of Valdez, Alaska the Exxon loaded with 170,000 metric tons of crude oil ran onto a reef tearing huge gashes in its hull and spilling 35,000 metric tons of oil into Prince William Sound Local contingency plans were not adequate for cleaning up oil spills of this magnitude delays caused in part by out of service equipment as well as a lack of equipment and personnel the rugged coastline the weather and the tidal currents of the enclosed area combined to intensify the problem The oil spread quickly and was distributed unevenly over more than 2300 km of water taking a severe toll on seabirds marine mammals fish and other marine organisms The oil moving out of Prince William Sound was not washed out to the sea bu was captured by the nearshore currents and over westward parallel with the coast

Oil spills

The average number of large tanker spills per decade decreaSed significantly form over twenty four per year in the 1970s to just over three per year in the 2000s Individual major spills are typically responsible for a high percentage of oil spills For example from 1990 to 1999 364 spills over 7 metric tons occurred totaling nearly 1.1 million metric tons 75% of the total 830,000 metric tons were spilled in just ten incidents just over 1% Consequently the volume of oil spilled in any given year can be strongly influence by a single large spill The damage caused by spills far out at sea is difficult to assess because no direct visual or economic impact occurs on coastal areas and damage to marine life cannot be accurately evaluated Spills due to the founding of vessels or accidents during transfer or storage happen in coastal areas where the environmental degradation and loss of marine life can be observed Spills that occur in estuaries and along coasts affect regions that are oceanographically complex biologically sensitive and economically important

Catch per unit effort

The commercial fishing catch per fishing boat per unit time

Biomagnify

The concentration of impurities or contaminants in biological organisms through transfer from lower to higher trophic level organisms during consumption

Bioaccumulate

the accumulation of any substance, such as toxicants, in the tissue of a living organism

Toxicants

The emission of toxicants in the SCB has also declined dramatically Surface runoff form coastal urban areas feeds directly into the marine environment via storm sewers Strom sewers carry a wide mix of materials including silt hydrocarbons from oil residues from industry pesticides and fertilizers from residential areas and coliform bacteria from animal wastes Even the chlorine added to drinking water and used to treat sewage effluent as a bactericide may form a complex with organic compounds in the water to produce chlorinated hydrocarbons that are toxic in the marine environment From rural and agricultural lands runoff finds its way through lakes streams and rivers to the coast This runoff supplies pesticides and nutrients which can poison or overfertilize the waters Excess nutrients can be destructive because the nutrients stimulate plant growth that eventually dies and decays removing large quantities of oxygen Lack of oxygen kills other organisms which in turn decay and continue to remove oxygen from the water Annual wastes and failed septic tank systems also contribute contamination to rural runoff

Mariculture

The growing or faming of Maine plants and animals

Aquaculture

The growing or faming of animals and plants in a water environment

Ecosystem Based Fishery Management

The limitations of MSY based fisheries management has led to adoption of this which acknowledges uncertainties in the biotic abiotic and human companies of ecosystems This approach views the entire ecosystem as relevant to managing a fishery and allows for the diverse societal uses of fish stocks including fishing recreation tourism and overall ecosystem health Major goals of this approach include selective fishing and reduction of incidental bycatch The goal is to sustain healthy ecosystems while reducing habitat destruction alteration of marine food webs and impacts to non target organisms

Size and Location of the Gulf Dead Zone

The location and size of the dead zone in the northern Gulf of Mexico vary from year to year

Intro

The oceans have always had a profound influence on the people who have settled along their shores The oceans provide food, clothing, and waste disposal They have inspired generations of artists writers poets and musicians They have provoked the imaginations of adventures and explorers For centuries the impact of humans on the ocean has been difficult to detect because human populations and technology continued at low levels in comparison to the vastness of the ocean Today human induced changes are easier to identify Water pollution plastics oil spills and extraction of energy food and raw materials The results of our actions include decreasing wastelands lower biodiversity introduction of invasive specie declining fish populations and expansion of dead zones Science documents changes in the marine environment and identifies causes

Overfishing

The removal of fish from a population faster than the population can reproduce

Incidental bycatch

The removal of fish or other marine organisms that were not the intended targets

Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone and the factors that control its size from year to year

The size of a dead zone seems to correlate with both the amount of agricultural fertilizers used in the Mississippi River drainage basin and with annual changes in rainfall The size can be related to coastal eutrophication driven by river runoff of fertilizers and the burning of fossil fuels

Marine Wetlands

The value of shore and estuary areas as centers of productivity and nursery areas for the coastal marine environment is wells known to oceanographers and biologists Saltwater and brackish marshes and swamps known as wetlands border estuaries and provide nutrients food shelter and spawning areas for marine species indulging such commercially important organisms as crabs shrimp oysters clams and many species of fish Coastal countries have long histories of filling wetlands and modifying coasts to provide croplands port facilities and industrial space for their growing populations Another type of wetland is being destroyed along the muddy shores of tropical subtropical lagoons and estuaries where several species of mangrove trees grow These salt tolerant trees protect the shore from wave erosion and storm damage and provide specialized habitats for fish on and among tangle roots IN recent years mangroves have been logged for timber wood chips and fuel Mangrove swamps have been cleared and filled to provide crops shrimp ponds and resorts Areas of recreation and retirement replace wetlands with waterfront homes These loss rates are comparable to those for coral reefs and tropical rainforests making coastal wetlands some of the most threatened habitats on Earth

Fish Farming

The worlds demand for seafood is increasing at the same time that the ocean harvest of wild fish is decreasing An alternative way to increase the fish harvest is by fish farming known as aquaculture, the growing or farming of plants in a water environment The term mariculture is used for the growing or farming of Maine plants and animals Currently aquaculture provides 38% of the worlds fish market Fish farming is the fastest growing area of global food production increasing at an annual rate of 6.6% Farming the water began in China some 4000 years ago The Chinese were culturing common carp in 1000 BC and in 500 BC a book was written giving directions on fish farming including methods for building the pond selecting the stock As commercial fishing has declined mariculture has responded by more than tripling in size Marine fish are grown in floating cages or pens kept in calm shallow protected coastal areas which are coming less and less available as shorelines are being increasingly built over and used for recreation

Marine Pollution def

There are many possible definitions for pollution, but the most straight forward goes from the World Health Organization Marine Pollution is the introduction by man directly or indirectly or substances or energy into the marine environment with results in deleterious effects This broad definition includes everything from noise pollution and oil spills to floating objects accidentally lost at sea or deliberately discarded, discharged of excess nutrients, and contamination of sediments or waters by heavy metals and man made compounds The deleterious effects can be immediate or may take hundreds of years to have an impact While progress has been made in eliminating some types of pollution potential problems will only increAse in the future as global population increases

Solid Waste dumping

Using the sea as a dump for trash and garbage was and is a common practice around the world Probably more than 25% of the mass of all material dumped at sea is dredged material from ports and waterways and one of the major methods of industrial waste disposal is dumping at sea After each modern war obsolete military hardware and munitions have been disposed of at sea Marine disposal of waster material and subsequent pollution of the marine environment must be regulated internationally Once pollutants enter the marine environment they can be transported anywhere in the oceans in 1972 the U.S. Congress passed the Marine Protection, Research and Sanctuaries Act also known as the Ocean Dumping Act to regulate the intentional disposal of waste at sea and authorize research related to marine pollution This Act prohibits all ocean dumping except as allowed by permits awarded by the Environmental Protection Agency in any ocean waters under U.S. jurisdiction by an U.S. vessel or any vessel sailing from a U.S. Port It also bans any dumping of radiological chemical and. biological warfare agents and any high level radioactive waste as well as medical wastes Today nearly all of the solid waste dumped at sea is dredge material Other than dredge material marine debris is often the result of accidental release or poor management of waste from human activities In 2010 250 million tons of municipal solid waste was generated in the United States or abut 2.01 kg per person per day of which 34% is recycled Based on a fiver year study of marine debris trends on US beaches three of the tope five items discarded on beaches can be recycled plastic bottles plastic bags and cans Worldwide the most common waste item found on beaches is cigarette buds The problems associated with the production and disposal of waste materials will only increase in the future as global population increases

Exclusive Economic Zone

area in which resources found up to 200 nautical miles offshore belong exclusively to the geographically bordering country