The polluted marine environment affects its inhabitants
Our way of life has an impact on marine environments and the species that depend on them
Acute Chemical Pollution
Oil spills form as a result of massive spills of oil products at sea. The water is then covered with a large oil slick that will float to the surface. Numerous marine species, stuck in this slick, die asphyxiated.
Chronic chemical pollution
It results from the presence in the oceans of toxic products of industrial, agricultural and urban origin. The oceans are the ultimate receptacle of atmospheric and terrestrial emissions. This pollution promotes multiple pathologies in birds and marine mammals.
Waste at Sea
This waste is mainly plastics. Most species are impacted: 94% of bird stomachs in the North Sea contain plastic and 86% of sea turtles ingest it, confusing it with jellyfish. In addition, this waste can hinder the animals by preventing them from moving around and feeding properly when they are not strangled to death.
Noise Pollution
Marine mammals depend on sounds for food, orientation, avoidance of predators and communication. In the oceans, maritime traffic, active sonar, seismic prospecting and the installation of offshore wind farms are sources of noise generation that interfere with marine mammals’ means of communication and prospecting and are the cause of behavioural changes and animal distribution.
Algal toxins
t is biological pollution. It is due to a disturbance of the ecosystem which causes a sudden and important development of algae containing toxins.
