Out of Sight Out of Mind More Things

Out of Sight Out of Mind More Things That Will Most Likely Destroy Us and Everything Else In The End

Greenhouse Gases • CO 2 was ≈ 290 ppm in 1850 Now ≈ 360 ppm • Coral Bleaching • Increased Hurricanes • Global Current change • Conveyor Belt disruption = potential Ice Age • Oceans absorb about 30 -50% of the CO 2 • becoming more Acidic

Wetland Destruction • Most biologically productive & most immediately threatened • People tend to want to live near the coast • 70% of US lives within a 1 day drive to the coastline • Disrupts bird migration patterns • 60 -70 of tropical/semitropical coast was mangrove; over 50% has been destroyed • Most of S. American areas have been converted to aquaculture lands

Coral Reefs • As temperatures increase bleaching becomes more common • Nutrient runoff increases algae growth; displacing corals and messing up food webs • Connected to wetland destruction • nursery gone = DEATH • Aquarium trade

Oceans as a Waste-Can • 1800 -1900 s “Solution is Dilution” • Believed natural processes would break down contaminants and eliminate them In March, 1986, New York started loading up barges with human waste and dumping it into the Atlantic, 106 miles off the coast, In 1992, the 106 -mile dumping finally stopped, but, all that poop? It's still out there. http: //www. nytimes. com/1991/12/02/us/scientists-suggest-dumping-sludge-on-vast-barren-deep-sea-floor. html? pagewanted=print

How much sewage comes from one ship? • The U. S. EPA estimates that a 3, 000 -person cruise ship generates 150, 000 gallons of sewage per week • enough to fill 10 backyard swimming pools. More • More than 1 billion gallons of sewage a year for the industry

Ballast Water • Used to maintain ships stability in water by taking in and releasing water • Causes invasion of exotic species

Garbage • Moved by currents either way they go EVERYWHERE • the global conveyor belt moves so slow contaminates may travel for 1000 s of years before we know the effects they will have • Pacific Garbage Patch

Garbage Patch Reason

Refuse – Plastics • Commercial fishing alone uses more than 150, 000 ton of plastics a year • Hazards: • Looks like food to animals • Can cause swift death; or accumulate in gut reducing hunger causing slow starvation. • Entanglement: ghost nets • 30, 000 seals die annually from ghost nets

Who Regulates Ocean Dumping? • International Maritime Organization (IMO) • International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL) adopted in 1973 and has been updated throughout the years • Many nations have signed the MARPOL treaty (including US)

MARPOL Summary • Annex I Regulations for the Prevention of Pollution by Oil • Annex II Regulations for the Control of Pollution by Noxious Liquid Substances • Annex III Prevention of Pollution by Harmful Substances Carried by Sea in Packaged Form • Annex IV Prevention of Pollution by Sewage from Ships • the discharge of sewage into the sea is prohibited, except with an approved sewage treatment plant or when the ship is discharging comminuted and disinfected sewage using an approved system at a distance of more than three nautical miles from the nearest land; sewage which is not comminuted or disinfected has to be discharged at a distance of more than 12 nautical miles from the nearest land. • Annex V Prevention of Pollution by Garbage from Ships • Annex VI Prevention of Air Pollution from Ships

ii) Issues with International Management: Controlling illegal dumping, achieving an international agreement, variations in the age and safety of ships When ship is charged with illegal dumping in international waters – it is up to the county of origin to enforce

Oil • Not bad in open ocean; very bad if gets to shoreline • Annually 6 million tons of petroleum hydrocarbons enter aquatic environments • • • Land-based sources (urban runoff and discharges from industry): 37% Natural seeps: 7% The oil industry - tanker accidents and offshore oil extraction: 14% Operational discharges from ships not within the oil industry: 33% Airborne hydrocarbons: 9% • destroys birds ability to repel water; cannot maintain body heat Ingests; damaging internal organs • Leaks through eggs; killing embryos • Shellfish (clams and oysters) tremendously effected (filter/bottom feeders)

Crude Oil vs Refined Oil • Crude – • 5 year environmental rebound: Iraq dumped 26 million gallons during Gulf War • more frequent • Heavy, doesn’t tend to evaporate can stay around longer • Refined • Lots of added chemicals that makes worse • Small molecules evaporate; leaving denser ones to sink to benthos

Radioactive Waste • 1940 – Dawn of nuclear testing • Dumping banded by International law in 1975 • US dumped 110, 000 barrels of plutonium and cesium • Mass Bay and Farallon Islands off CA (ruptured) • Since fall of Soviet Union; admit massive dumping. Lake Karacy. • contamination more than 24 Xs the fall out of Chernobyl https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=e R 5 z_9468 QI