Slower cargo ships mean less pollution

Pollution comes from a variety of sources including the cargo ships. Ships are big sources of air pollution because many of them use fuel rich with sulfur, and sulfur dioxide is one of the most harmful air pollutants, one that also contributes to acid rain formation. Other notable air pollutants connected with shipping are carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxide.

The U.S. scientists from the University of California believe that this issue can be tackled by introducing speed limits on cargo shipping when they sail near ports and coastlines. They have calculated that the introduction of speed limits would reduce the levels of air pollution associated with marine shipping by as much as 70%.

Marine traffic is constantly growing and most engines on these ships burn low-grade oil that is associated with many harmful air pollutants. Both fuel consumption, as well as the amount of emissions, increases with higher speeds thus reducing the speed of these vessels is certainly a logical step to cut pollution.

Limiting ship speeds means reducing air pollution

Slowing container ships to about 14 miles per hour reduces emissions of carbon dioxide by about 60 percent and nitrogen oxides by 55 percent in comparison to emissions at traditional cruising speeds of 25-29 mph. There are even bigger reduction is soot emissions, by more than 70%.

The scientific proof is there and now it is up to regulatory bodies to come up with the adequate policy. Reducing air pollution isn't only beneficiary for our environment but most importantly for our health as air pollution often leads to different respiratory diseases such as asthma, and can even cause cancer.

What this means is that slowing ships means reducing their levels of air pollution and with it protecting the health of all people living in those areas. We mustn't forget that exhaust emissions from ships account to 18-30% of all nitrogen oxide and 9% of sulfur oxide pollution.

The current shipping laws are still inadequate to deal with the air pollution issue. This will hopefully soon change as slowing ships seems to be a very easy solution to fix this.

Littering is a big issue in Pacific

Different kinds of litter are polluting many of our planet's seas and oceans and one of the worst affected areas is the North Pacific Gyre. It is not very difficult to imagine the level of marine pollution in this area of the Pacific when you know that this area is also often being referred to as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

The latest report about a huge littering problem in Pacific comes from the environmentalist Tim Silverwood, who in his recent latest voyage across the Pacific Ocean from Honolulu to Vancouver documented the level of marine pollution in this area.

Speaking at the „Keep Australia Beautiful“campaign he pointed out that "twice the size of France and growing exponentially, this sea of rubbish is threatening to become one of the great ecological disasters of our time“

The levels of pollution in this area are horrifying, even thousands miles from the nearest land mass, he observed different plastic debris, among other a toothbrush, pen caps, bottle caps and a toy plastic gorilla.

If this pollution issue remains unchallenged it will cause huge damage to entire marine environment and on a long run cause huge problems to an entire marine food chain in Pacific. Animals can digest this litter, some of which also has different toxic substances that can create serious health damage to not only the animals that digest it, but also humans after they consume affected fish or some other marine animal.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch formed gradually, over the years, as a result of marine pollution gathered by oceanic currents. According to some recent estimates around 80% of the litter comes from land-based sources and 20% from ships.

There still hasn't been any serious cleaning effort to tackle pollution in the North Pacific Gyre, only several researches with the aim to identify the best methods that would allow a safe removal of these pollutants from the ocean.

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.

Marine pollution needs to be taken seriously

Each day, a large quantities of chemicals and different other pollutants are being dumped into our oceans and seas. The marine pollution is on the rise because human population is constantly growing, and with it also grows the amount of different pollutants that make their ways into our oceans and seas.

It has been estimated that around 60% of people in the world live in coastal areas. More people means bigger pollution. The worst thing is that the large number of people doesn't really care about what is going to happen to many marine ecosystems if we continue to pollute our oceans and seas, and most importantly what kind of the effect will marine pollution have on us and our well being. Not to mention our future generations.

Marine wildlife is finding it extremely hard to cope with the excessive level of pollutants such as heavy metals, nutrients and bacteria. Many marine ecosystems will soon cease to exist if world fails to address the marine issue properly. In fact, marine pollution has the potential to become one of the key factors to huge biodiversity loss in years to come. Like climate change and habitat loss aren't more than enough to deal with.

Humans have to stop using oceans as dumping grounds, and world should be definitely putting more efforts to develop political and social will so that people would start to respect environment, instead of constantly finding new ways how to abuse it.

This issue needs to be solved on domestic as well as the international level. Domestic laws are not enough because marine pollution often tends to spread from domestic to international waters, so this issue really deserves a global level of awareness.

Marine pollution is an issue that needs to be taken seriously. Lives of many people around the globe depend on fish, and ongoing marine pollution is threatening to disrupt marine food chain to a point of no return.

Marine pollution could not only cause huge fish loss, it could also pose serious health threat to humans because toxins could easily end up in our body after consuming fish from a polluted area.

Marine pollution from ships - Quick facts

Marine pollution refers to pollution of our seas and oceans. Ships are big sources of marine pollution, and this issue still isn't getting enough attention on global scale.

Ships can pollute our oceans and seas in many ways. Most people will probably first think about oil spills when talking about the marine pollution from ships.

Oil spills are extremely difficult to clean up, they kill many marine animals, and what is worst of all their effects last for many years.

Our seas and oceans still represent the perfect dumping grounds for many ships that intentionally discharge illegal wastes despite international and domestic regulations strictly prohibiting such actions.

Ships are also big contributor to noise pollution that disturbs marine ecosystems.

Increased shipping is also connected with invasive species, for instance water from ballast tanks can spread harmful algae, jellyfish and many other species that disturb native marine ecosystems.

Several studies have confirmed that exhaust emissions from ships are among the most important sources of air pollution, accounting to 18-30% of all nitrogen oxide and 9% of sulfur oxide pollution.

Tourism is also one of the factors that significantly contributes to marine pollution. The cruise ships are tremendous generators of different waste that ends up in our oceans and seas.

Large share of the current regulation is inadequate to deal with the marine pollution coming from ships. The only notable regulation that deals with regulating marine pollution from ships is the Marine Pollution Treaty, Honolulu.