Shipwreck pollution is great environmental threat

Our planet is heavily polluted, even without shipwrecks. Shipwrecks together with ocean acidification and dumping waste into oceans are the biggest source of ocean pollution. Only the gigantic size of our oceans prevents us from seeing what kind of pollution have we done to our oceans over the years. Just imagine, the two World wars, and the number of shipwrecks that have polluted oceans and sea across the globe. Some estimates say there are over 7800 sunken WWII vessels worldwide, including over 860 oil tankers, corroding for over 60 years at the bottom of the worlds oceans, damage that these shipwrecks cause is gigantic and sadly irreparable. Though today there is no war (thankfully) ocean and sea pollution in form of shipwrecks is still very much happening, and presents big environmental threat to many marine ecosystems.

The latest case with shipwreck pollution happened on the coast of southern Madagascar with Turkish vessel Gulser Ana that carried 39000 tons of raw phosphates, 568 tons of fuel, 66 tons of diesel and 8000 liters of lubricant, most of which was slowly released into the Indian Ocean, doing serious environmental damage to marine wildlife. Sadly, environmental disasters like this one happen every once in a while, adding more and more to global pollution of our oceans.

Imagine the ugliness of this sight: toxic substances like gasoline, diesel, heavy fuels, oils, battery acids, metals like lead and copper leak, spill into our seas and oceans with many marine creatures slowly dying in agonizing pain. It's not exactly a pretty picture but sadly this ugly picture is constantly happening in our oceans and our seas.

Shipwreck pollution - Great environmental threat