Our Precious Coasts

WHAT IS MARINE POLLUTION AND HOW DOES IT AFFECT MARINE LIFE

Marine pollution includes a range of threats including from land- based sources, oil spills, untreated sewage, heavy siltation, eutrophi- cation (nutrient enrichment), invasive species, persistent organic pol- lutants (POP’s), heavy metals from mine tailings and other sources, acidification, radioactive substances, marine litter, overfishing and destruction of coastal and marine habitats (McCook 1999, Nyström et al . 2000, Bellwood et al . 2004). Overall, good progress has been

made on reducing Persistent organic pollutants (POP’s), with the ex- ception of the Arctic. Oil discharges and spills to the Seas has been reduced by 63% compared to the mid-1980’ies, and tanker accidents have gone down by 75%, from tanker operations by 90% and from industrial discharges by some 90%, partly as a result of the shift to double-hulled tankers (UNEP, 2006; Brown et al ., 2006). Some prog- ress on reducing emissions of heavy metals is reported in some re-

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