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While marine pollution can be obvious, as with the marine debris shown above, it is often the pollutants that cannot be seen that cause most harm.. Marine pollution occurs when substances used or spread by humans, such as industrial, agricultural and residential waste, particles, noise, excess carbon dioxide or invasive organisms enter the ocean and cause harmful effects there.
Mercury can enter seas and the open ocean as a result of the down stream movement and re-deposition of contaminated sediments from urban estuaries. [12] For example, high total Hg content up to 5 mg/kg and averaging about 2 mg/kg occur in the surface sediments and sediment cores of the tidal River Mersey, UK, due to discharge from historical industries located along the banks of the tidal ...
However, by the late 1960s to early 1970s, millions of tons of waste were still being dumped into the ocean annually. [13] By this time, governments began to realize the severe impacts of marine pollution, which led to one of the first international policies regarding ocean dumping in 1972 – the London Convention. [13]
Human activities affect marine life and marine habitats through overfishing, habitat loss, the introduction of invasive species, ocean pollution, ocean acidification and ocean warming. These impact marine ecosystems and food webs and may result in consequences as yet unrecognised for the biodiversity and continuation of marine life forms. [3]
The ocean is a global common, so negative externalities of marine debris are not usually experienced by the producer. In the 1950s, the importance of government intervention with marine pollution protocol was recognized at the First Conference on the Law of the Sea. [77] Ocean dumping is controlled by international law, including:
Studies on marine plastic pollution began in the 1970s, when plastic debris was found in gyres in the Sargasso Sea and the first scientific findings were published in 1972. [22] [23] Around a decade later, in the 1980s, the first researches focusing on the problem of marine plastic pollution in the Mediterranean Sea were published.
The history of environmental pollution traces human-dominated ecological systems from the earliest civilizations to the present day. [1] This history is characterized by the increased regional success of a particular society , followed by crises that were either resolved, producing sustainability , or not, leading to decline.
Marine conservation, also known as ocean conservation, ... and pollution from land-based sources. [17] This, in conjunction with increased carbon in oceans, ...