Image from page 46 of "Deep-sea biodiversity and ecosystems - a scoping report on their socio-economy, management and governance. UNEP-WCMC Biodiversity Series 28" (2007)
Title: Deep-sea biodiversity and ecosystems - a scoping report on their socio-economy, management and governance. UNEP-WCMC Biodiversity Series 28
Identifier: deepseabiodivers07vand
Authors: Van den Hove, S. , Moreau, V. , UNEP-WCMC, HERMES Project
Subjects:
Publisher: UNEP-WCMC, HERMES Project
Contributing Library: UNEP-WCMC, Cambridge
Digitizing Sponsor: UNEP-WCMC, Cambridge
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Human activities and impacts on the deep sea before toxic chemicals from land-based sources are transported to the deep sea. The nuclear and military industries are sources of some of the most dangerous wastes intentionally dumped at sea. Because of the difficulty to access data from both civil and military sources, the quantities of radioactive wastes dumped in ocean trenches off the British Isles by the United Kingdom and other European nations, or of submarines reactors dumped by the Soviet Union, can barely be estimated. Nuclear (relprocessing plants continue to discharge low levels of radioactive waters into the sea. However, atmospheric nuclear tests are responsible for more than 2 000 times the levels of radioactivity observed in the oceans, compared to solid wastes |IMO, 19971. The oceans are not safe, secure garbage cans either: nuclear wastes in shallow waters off Somalia were recently washed ashore by the 2004 Tsunami, causing serious health and environmental problems (see www.unep.org/tsunami_rpt.asp for further information). The oil and gas industry is also a source of pollutants. Radioactive radon and lead isotopes are released in the seas while pumping oil and gas out of continental crusts (Dutton et aL, 2002]. Decommissioning of oil and gas rigs, as the 1995 Brent Spar case showed, will become a critical issue and strategies need to be put in place to manage the end of life of such equipments, especially in the deep sea. Even if pipelines and platforms can be towed to shore, chances are that some equipment will be left in place on the seafloor and the potential contaminants contained in such structures will become a key issue. The toppling of disused offshore installations is equivalent to dumping according to the OSPAR Convention and therefore illegal in the North Sea, unlike in the Gulf of Mexico. The bulk of the oil and gas industry's wastes, however, will come from another indirect source: the deep sea is bound to be at the end of the economy's largest waste stream, CO2 emissions. Pollution from ships tends to be less controlled away from the coasts. Further out at sea, tanks are often cleaned, and oil and chemical residues deliberately discharged overboard. Such operations represent the largest sources of pollution from ships (UN, 2007). Moreover, the regulation of effluents from ships remains difficult to enforce, especially if discharges take place in remote offshore areas or international waters. Spurred by a boom in tourism at sea, cruise ships are increasingly threatening vulnerable areas with their wastes. Seabed litter studies in the Mediterranean found that the most common litter were paint chips (44 per cent) and plastics (36 per cent), with probably most of this seabed debris being ship-based. Moreover, vessel-genera- ted refuse remains a major source of marine litter, even after the entry into force of regulations that prohibit disposal of all litter except food (Galil. 2006).
Text Appearing After Image:
Plastic rubbish caught on Madrepora coral colonies in the central Mediterranean. As mentioned above, some 30 per cent of marine debris is fishing gear, either lost or dumped. In addition, a rough estimate of lost merchant freight at sea is 1.3 million tonnes per year. Over seven million tonnes of British merchant vessels were sunk during the First World War and more than 21 million tonnes of allied merchant cargo during the Second (Angel and Rice, 1996). Numerous types of non-degradable plastics litter the ocean floor, and even buoyant plastics might eventually sink due to their long persistence. Recent deep-sea dives to the Eastern Mediterranean observed a piece of plastic litter every 10-100 m2 (HERMES expeditions RV METEOR M70). The proportion of plastics in marine litter vanes between 60 and 80 per cent (Derraik. 2002). Another type of pollution impacting on the deep sea is acoustic pollution. Maritime transportation around the globe is increasing and so is the number of boats and vessels at sea. The acoustic impact of the low frequency sounds produced by vessels is not confined to coastal waters, but penetrates into the deep portions of the oceans. It is not yet clear what impact this type of pollution can have on cetaceans (such as sperm whales, for example) that spend a large part of their life in the deep sea and use sound to communicate, navigate, feed and sense their environment (Galil, 2006). Ships can also kill mammals by accident when they surface to breathe. Most lethal or severe injuries are caused by ships 80 metres or longer travelling at 14 knots or faster. Ship strikes can significantly affect small populations of whales I Lai st etai, 2001). Impact Bioaccumulation of toxic chemicals increasingly affects deep-sea biodiversity. Some deep-sea fish are seri- ously contaminated by heavy metal and polychlorinated 45
Note About Images
Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original work.
Image from page 46 of "Deep-sea biodiversity and ecosystems - a scoping report on their socio-economy, management and governance. UNEP-WCMC Biodiversity Series 28" (2007)
Title: Deep-sea biodiversity and ecosystems - a scoping report on their socio-economy, management and governance. UNEP-WCMC Biodiversity Series 28
Identifier: deepseabiodivers07vand
Authors: Van den Hove, S. , Moreau, V. , UNEP-WCMC, HERMES Project
Subjects:
Publisher: UNEP-WCMC, HERMES Project
Contributing Library: UNEP-WCMC, Cambridge
Digitizing Sponsor: UNEP-WCMC, Cambridge
View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.
Text Appearing Before Image:
Human activities and impacts on the deep sea before toxic chemicals from land-based sources are transported to the deep sea. The nuclear and military industries are sources of some of the most dangerous wastes intentionally dumped at sea. Because of the difficulty to access data from both civil and military sources, the quantities of radioactive wastes dumped in ocean trenches off the British Isles by the United Kingdom and other European nations, or of submarines reactors dumped by the Soviet Union, can barely be estimated. Nuclear (relprocessing plants continue to discharge low levels of radioactive waters into the sea. However, atmospheric nuclear tests are responsible for more than 2 000 times the levels of radioactivity observed in the oceans, compared to solid wastes |IMO, 19971. The oceans are not safe, secure garbage cans either: nuclear wastes in shallow waters off Somalia were recently washed ashore by the 2004 Tsunami, causing serious health and environmental problems (see www.unep.org/tsunami_rpt.asp for further information). The oil and gas industry is also a source of pollutants. Radioactive radon and lead isotopes are released in the seas while pumping oil and gas out of continental crusts (Dutton et aL, 2002]. Decommissioning of oil and gas rigs, as the 1995 Brent Spar case showed, will become a critical issue and strategies need to be put in place to manage the end of life of such equipments, especially in the deep sea. Even if pipelines and platforms can be towed to shore, chances are that some equipment will be left in place on the seafloor and the potential contaminants contained in such structures will become a key issue. The toppling of disused offshore installations is equivalent to dumping according to the OSPAR Convention and therefore illegal in the North Sea, unlike in the Gulf of Mexico. The bulk of the oil and gas industry's wastes, however, will come from another indirect source: the deep sea is bound to be at the end of the economy's largest waste stream, CO2 emissions. Pollution from ships tends to be less controlled away from the coasts. Further out at sea, tanks are often cleaned, and oil and chemical residues deliberately discharged overboard. Such operations represent the largest sources of pollution from ships (UN, 2007). Moreover, the regulation of effluents from ships remains difficult to enforce, especially if discharges take place in remote offshore areas or international waters. Spurred by a boom in tourism at sea, cruise ships are increasingly threatening vulnerable areas with their wastes. Seabed litter studies in the Mediterranean found that the most common litter were paint chips (44 per cent) and plastics (36 per cent), with probably most of this seabed debris being ship-based. Moreover, vessel-genera- ted refuse remains a major source of marine litter, even after the entry into force of regulations that prohibit disposal of all litter except food (Galil. 2006).
Text Appearing After Image:
Plastic rubbish caught on Madrepora coral colonies in the central Mediterranean. As mentioned above, some 30 per cent of marine debris is fishing gear, either lost or dumped. In addition, a rough estimate of lost merchant freight at sea is 1.3 million tonnes per year. Over seven million tonnes of British merchant vessels were sunk during the First World War and more than 21 million tonnes of allied merchant cargo during the Second (Angel and Rice, 1996). Numerous types of non-degradable plastics litter the ocean floor, and even buoyant plastics might eventually sink due to their long persistence. Recent deep-sea dives to the Eastern Mediterranean observed a piece of plastic litter every 10-100 m2 (HERMES expeditions RV METEOR M70). The proportion of plastics in marine litter vanes between 60 and 80 per cent (Derraik. 2002). Another type of pollution impacting on the deep sea is acoustic pollution. Maritime transportation around the globe is increasing and so is the number of boats and vessels at sea. The acoustic impact of the low frequency sounds produced by vessels is not confined to coastal waters, but penetrates into the deep portions of the oceans. It is not yet clear what impact this type of pollution can have on cetaceans (such as sperm whales, for example) that spend a large part of their life in the deep sea and use sound to communicate, navigate, feed and sense their environment (Galil, 2006). Ships can also kill mammals by accident when they surface to breathe. Most lethal or severe injuries are caused by ships 80 metres or longer travelling at 14 knots or faster. Ship strikes can significantly affect small populations of whales I Lai st etai, 2001). Impact Bioaccumulation of toxic chemicals increasingly affects deep-sea biodiversity. Some deep-sea fish are seri- ously contaminated by heavy metal and polychlorinated 45
Note About Images
Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original work.