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Coastal cities, offshore oil rigs, and ships
- Coastal cities, offshore oil rigs, and ships flood the ocean with artificial light that impacts a wide range of sea creatures. From the tiniest zooplankton to the largest whales, light pollution disrupts natural rhythms, threatening marine habitats.
darksky.org/news/from-the-beach-to-the-seafloor-light-pollution-interferes-with-marine-life/Light pollution interferes with sea life | DarkSky International
Mar 1, 2022 · Some of the most extensive marine light pollution occurs in areas where offshore oil and gas platforms, wind farms, and island development brighten the night above and below the water line. The maps above show the North Sea in April and the Persian Gulf in December.
- Types of Ocean Pollution
- A Brief History of Marine Conservation
- Tackling Ocean Pollution- What Can We do?
- Conclusion
1. Plastic and Garbage pollution
Plastic bottles, bags, cigarette butts, plastic pieces, straws, tires, netting etc., threaten the marine ecosystem as fish and other creatures get entangled in them, suffocate and die. Turtles and seabirds can sometimes confuse them with food and even digest them, causing a rupture in their digestive system and eventual death through starvation. Microplastics are small pieces or fragments of plastic that are eaten by fish and then enter the human body. According to a recent study, the fish in...
2. Pollution from fertilisers, pesticides, and insecticides
Pollution can be defined as the entry of contaminants into oceans. These artificial chemicals are harmful and are usually released far from the coastlines. Nutrient-rich fertilisers, pesticides, insecticides and herbicides are sprayed on farms, and the excess often ends up in nearby streams, rivers, bays and estuaries, which carry them to the ocean. Sometimes chemical pollutants can completely disrupt the food chain. E.g.-, DDT is an insecticide that led to the bald eagle’s addition to the Un...
3. Pollution From Noise Made by Ships and Maritime Equipment
Marine pollution is not only plastic or other pollutants that are tangible, but it includes other intangible aspects such as noise pollution. Many marine mammals, like whales and dolphins, do not have sharp eyesight. They understand their surroundings and communicate with their species over large distances using sounds. This is known as echolocation. However, artificial sounds from ships, sonars, and other equipment disrupt their communication. It could disturb their lifecycles and affect mig...
In the 1990s, there were no laws to regulate and check marine pollution; however, things changed after the publication of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring in 1962. The book highlighted the detrimental effects of pesticides on the environment. The 1970s were known as the Environmental decade, which saw an increased human concern for the land and marine...
Many contaminants and pollutants like plastic are non-biodegradable and remain in the oceans for thousands of years. Chemical pollutants also do not break down easily and accumulate in the food chains. Although there have been many attempts to clean up rivers, bays, streams or ocean patches, they have met with limited success since pollutants are t...
Ocean or marine pollution might seem like a minor problem to us, but it is serious. Since human activities have created this problem, it is our responsibility to tackle it. If not done so at the right time, our once beautiful blue oceans would be filled with heaps of plastic. Thousands of marine species would go extinct, and the environmental balan...
- Beth Howell
- Plastic pollution. Our planet has a plastic problem. This harmful material has made its way into every corner of the planet, with the ocean being its biggest victim.
- Nutrient pollution. Nutrient pollution happens when excess nutrients, usually nitrogen and phosphorus, enter bodies of water and act as fertilizers. These nutrients cause high levels of algae growth, which restrict sunlight and oxygen from entering the water — the two key ingredients needed to nurture aquatic plants.
- Nonpoint-source pollution. Nonpoint-source pollution is waste that’s offloaded into waterways from multiple places at once. This makes it much harder to identify and address than point-source pollution, which only comes from one key source.
- Light pollution. When we think about different types of ocean pollutants, light pollution is often overlooked. Although it seems pretty harmless compared to plastic or chemicals, artificial light from urban areas has detrimental effects on marine life habitats, especially ones located in coastal areas.
May 12, 2022 · Studies in the sea lag behind those on land, but the first global atlas of light pollution in the seas and oceans was recently published showing that large areas are affected. At a depth of 1m, 1.9 million km2 of coastal seas are exposed to light pollution that will have a biological impact.
Mar 17, 2022 · The first global atlas of ocean light pollution shows that large swaths of the sea are squinting in the glare of humans’ artificial lights at night.
Jun 8, 2024 · Coastal cities, offshore oil rigs, and ships flood the ocean with artificial light that impacts a wide range of sea creatures. From the tiniest zooplankton to the largest whales, light pollution disrupts natural rhythms, threatening marine habitats.
Apr 1, 2024 · Vast areas of North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia are glowing with light, while only the most remote regions on Earth (Siberia, the Sahara, and the Amazon) are in total darkness. Some of the most light-polluted countries in the world are Singapore, Qatar, and Kuwait.
