Marine pollution facts

Marine pollution is a broad term that describes the condition in which pollutants such as chemicals enter oceans or seas and create harmful effects to nearby environment.

Marine pollution is usually the result of land based pollutants such as agricultural runoff.

Shipping is also a big source of marine pollution, especially in cases of oil spill accidents.

Our seas and oceans are the biggest dumping grounds on our planets where thousands of ships each year dump enormous quantities of illegal waste.

Many famous marine tourists’ resorts have problems with marine pollution, this is because more tourists also mean more waste.

Marine pollution issue still requires adequate legislation, the Marine Pollution Treaty signed in Honolulu is obviously not enough to reduce the marine pollution on global level.

As the human population keeps growing so will the marine pollution. This is because more than 60% people in the world lives in coastal areas.

Marine pollution could lead to decline and even extinction of many marine species, and could therefore significantly contribute to already huge biodiversity loss.

If marine pollution continues to grow there will be less fish, and less fish will cause more hunger in the world.

Marine pollution could also lead to health problems for humans that consume fish which originates from the polluted area.

Many pollutants are directly entering our seas and oceans from urban sewerage and industrial waste discharges.

Deep sea mining is another major threat that could make marine pollution worse in many parts of the world.

Ocean acidification has become a major form of marine pollution. Oceans are becoming more and more acidic because of the increased CO2 levels in the atmosphere.

Noise pollution in our oceans coming from ships (and other artificial sounds) is also a major form of marine pollution despite not being so much talked about topic.

Humans either need to pollute less or to reduce the growth of human population if we want to stop marine pollution from totally running out of control.