TL: MARINE POLLUTION, LAND-BASED SOURCES SO: Greenpeace International (GP) DT: June 10, 1994 Keywords: oceans toxics effluent sewage conferences scientific greenpeace reports gp / MEETING OF EXPERTS ON CONTROL OF MARINE POLLUTION FROM LAND-BASED SOURCES (GP) 6-10 June 1994 Montreal, Canada Sponsored by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Government of Canada Paper prepared by Greenpeace International LAND BASED SOURCES OF MARINE POLLUTION: SOUNDING THE ALARM Urgent Need for Global Precautionary Action It is no secret that human activities have polluted marine ecosystems, but the magnitude of the problem and the full consequences of marine pollution have yet to be acknowledged. Contamination from land-based sources is responsible for at least 80 percent of marine pollution worldwide. Pollutants include natural nutrients which become problematic when concentrated, natural toxic substances, and a myriad of synthetic compounds. They may enter the marine environment through direct discharge, in river effluent, in runoff from land, and through the atmosphere. Pollutants introduced into the environment far inland from any coastline eventually reach the sea by way of air currents or river drainage. The marine environment is threatened by the burgeoning human population, growing most rapidly along the coasts, and by continued growth of polluting industries. Toxic pollutants can be carried great distances in the atmosphere and are deposited on the ocean surface in open ocean waters as well as coastal waters. We are facing a global crisis of coastal marine sediments laced with toxic substances. The contaminated sediments have washed out of river basins that drain industrial, municipal, and agricultural areas, and have continued to scavenge toxic materials polluting the coastal waters. We also have seen the failure of pollution controls based upon bogus assumptions that the ocean can continue to receive large amounts toxic contaminants without harm to the ecosystem. There is reason for concern that the scenarios of severe pollution occurring today in confined coastal basins will be repeated first in other coastal areas and finally, at a slower pace, in the open ocean. The number of new synthetic organic chemicals produced and released into the environment each year is almost beyond imagination. The complexity of the resulting chemical soup in aquatic environments is rivalled only by the biological complexity of the natural ecosystem, thus making the biochemical interactions impossible to sort out. While there are undeniable symptoms of declining health in marine ecosystems that receive a wealth of toxic substances from land, the precise cause and effect interactions cannot be deciphered. This has had a debilitating effect upon regulators wanting to "control" pollution but reluctant to "eliminate" contaminants without proof of a causal relationship. Even the increasing evidence of human health effects caused by seafood from contaminated waters has not been enough to stop the toxic flood. Until this paralysis is cured, the countdown continues for declining marine ecosystems that are approaching the point of no return and for human populations that rely heavily upon the sea for sustenance. Fortunately, however, there are signs of change. A shift from the old assimilative capacity approach to pollution control (where proof of harm is required before action is taken) to the precautionary approach (where action is taken where there is a weight of evidence that harm may occur, even before proof is attained) has been accepted in principle by more than 160 countries in various conventions and other international fora, and a few are beginning to implement precaution by committing themselves to reducing and eventually phasing out target substances or categories of substances. Agenda 21, adopted in 1992 by the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), embraces the precautionary approach in several contexts, including the protection of the marine environment (Ch.17.21). Now this process being initiated by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), in accordance with Agenda 21, to address the problem of pollution from land-based activities from a global perspective offers an opportunity to design a programme of action that, if implemented globally, can reverse the decline of the world ocean. However, this potential will be fulfilled only if the guidance of the precautionary principle is taken very seriously and only if the participating nations take to heart the lessons of the past 20 years and leap far ahead of the old Montreal Guidelines. The global aspect of the UNEP process is important. Regional efforts to address land-based sources of marine pollution vary greatly in intent and effectiveness, and they do not attempt to address the important problem of large scale transport of pollutants from one region of the world to another The only instrument addressing the issue is the Montreal Guidelines--an outdated smorgasbord of recommendations from which governments can pick and choose those that suit them with no overriding commitment to reduce and eventually eliminate the discharge of potential pollutants from land. In order to address global transport of marine pollution and to coordinate separate regional efforts, an integrated program of action that vastly improves upon the Montreal Guidelines is essential. The Guidelines acknowledged a potential for trouble and recommended some ways of limiting the impact, but more is needed. The heavily polluted coastal seas are only a portent of what is in store for the whole ocean if serious measures are not taken to curtail and eliminate land based sources of pollution globally. Global Epidemic of Pollution Effects The following roster of biological, chemical and physical consequences of marine pollution highlights marine environmental problems that are found again and again around the world, leading some scientists and social scientists to suggest that there is a global epidemic of ecosystem degradation due to marine pollution. 1. Fisheries and Shellfisheries Closed Due to Contamination When fisheries or shell fisheries have to be closed because of contamination in the tissue of the harvested animals, there is understandably an outcry from fishers, who often try to single out specific sources of pollution as the primary culprit. The next step almost invariably is a futile attempt to prove a connection between the suspected cause and the fish contamination. The fish in question may be migratory, making it even more difficult to identify the primary source of contamination. In fact, contamination in fish tissue comes most often from a collection of sources, most originating from land. So usually in the end no effective action is taken to change the situation, and the remedy is to close the fishery or issue health advisories. 2. Even Deep Water Fish Have Elevated Levels of Toxic Substances in Tissue There is little information on toxins in the deep, but a few studies have revealed the presence in deep sea animals of foreign compounds originating from land-based activities. While the effects of this contamination are unknown because the biology and ecology of deep sea communities is so poorly known, these measurements provide evidence that the deep ocean is not too remote to receive the outfall of human activities. For example, rattail fish from deep water in the western North Atlantic have been found to contain polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in concentrations known to cause biochemical effects in other fish. 3. Collapse of Fisheries Many fisheries in coastal and high seas areas are in a state of collapse. Overfishing is often to blame, but there may be compounding effects from pollution as well. For example, most of the fisheries in the Black Sea have collapsed from a combination of factors including fishing pressure, invasion of alien species, nutrient loadings leading to anoxia, and severe toxic pollution in the surface layer where the eggs and/or larvae of 80% of the failing fisheries species are found. It is also of interest that in the depleted Cod of the North Atlantic, the eggs float in the surface microlayer where they are exposed to enhanced levels of toxic pollutants (including radioactive materials in some locations). While the depletion of the fishery is clearly due to overfishing, reduced survival of eggs would surely compound the problem. A recent study of old data suggests that the collapse of the Sardine fishery off the coast of California in the 1940's may have been linked to effects of pollution. Pesticides in the Gulf of Guayaquil, Ecuador After years of impressive growth, Ecuador's shrimp production declined sharply in 1993 due to Taura Syndrome, a disease of unknown origin which causes extremely high shrimp mortality rates due to inhibition of molting and exoskeleton production. Originally discovered in late 1992, in the vicinity of the Taura River feeding into the Gulf of Guayaquil, the Syndrome has been gradually spreading throughout the Gulf. Preliminary lab tests, toxicology studies, and strong circumstantial evidence suggest a likely linkage of shrimp mortality to fungicides used to control Black Sigatoka, a fungal disease which has afflicted the banana sector. Wild shrimp seed survive better than the cultivated seed, but even their survival is depressed by as much as 30%. Shrimp producers have called for a ban on the use of these fungicides while banana producers have opposed any restrictions on them. No action has yet been taken by the government. Reference: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (US) news release 4. Increased Incidence of Harmful Algal Blooms There has been a notable increase in the reported occurrences of harmful algal blooms over the past two to three decades. Many of the world's foremost authorities are alarmed at the increasing number of harmful algal blooms reported along coastlines globally and the increasing number of species of microalgae being implicated in the blooms. Some blooms are toxic, like the classic red tides which cause paralytic shellfish poisoning. Other blooms involve different kinds of microalgae, but even if toxins are not involved, the blooms are nearly always problematic because one species alone cannot provide an adequate source of nutrition to a varied food chain. Red Tides aud Nutrients From 1965 to 1976, the incidence of red tides in the Seto Inland Sea (the largest enclosed coastal sea in Japan) increased steadily from 44 in one year to 326 per year. This was accompanied by a measured increase in both nitrate and phosphate loading. Subsequent to that regulations reduced the nutrient loading and the incidence of red tides began to decrease with 100 reported in 1992. In Tolo Harbour, Hong Kong, the number of red tides increased 8- fold between 1976 to 1986. This steady increase was accompanied by a 6-fold increase in human population and a concurrent 2.5- fold increase in nutrient loading. Evidence of the spread of single-species microalgal blooms (often toxic), includes numerous reports of new locations for typical bloom species. For example, particular bloom species have spread from the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic coast of the U.S.; from the northeast U.S. coast to Norway and eventually throughout northern European waters; from southern California to Japan, Tasmania and Spain; as well as regional increases in numbers and locations of incidents in Japanese coastal waters and the Indo-Pacific. Reference: Smayda (1990) 6. Human Health Impacts There has been a notable upsurge in waterborne diseases and in adverse health effects from eating fish contaminated with toxic substances. Cholera epidemics have broken out in many locations around the world, and they have been associated with high nutrient loading and the resulting algal blooms. This connection has been made in Peru, Chile, India Bangladesh, and throughout tropical Asia In industrialised countries such as the US, fish contaminated with toxic pollutants have been associated with human birth defects and developmental deviations. As a result several fisheries in the U.S. and elsewhere have been closed or warnings have been issued cautioning pregnant women not to eat fish caught in certain locations. These warnings are not issued as systematically or as often as they should be. 6. Ultra-violet Light and Chemical Effects on Plankton in Surface Waters Microalgae and microfauna at the surface of the sea are subject to adverse impacts of the increased incidence of ultra-violet radiation at the sea surface due to thinning of the ozone layer. Significant reductions in surface phytoplankton, which forms the base of the food chain, can have far reaching effects on the whole ecosystem. For example, in the southern ocean, where the effects of ozone depletion are the greatest, a reduced productivity of phytoplankton would directly impact the krill--a key element in the very rich food chain that feeds, fish, whales, and seabirds alike. The direct effect of ultra-violet light on krill is not known but should be examined. A recent decline in krill in the Antarctic has been observed, though the cause is as yet undetermined. Another common effect of ultra- violet radiation--the breakage of chromosomes in fish eggs floating at the surface--has serious implications on the population dynamics of the affected fish species. Some toxic pollutants in the microlayer also cause chromosome damage in fish eggs. 7. Fish Tumors and Deformities Fish are relatively sensitive to carcinogens and substances causing an array of other maladies, so they have become sentinels for these toxins in the marine environment. The increased incidence of skeletal deformities and tumors in bottom fish in polluted areas has been well documented in North American coastal waters and some scientists are convinced that there is a causal effect, especially associated with liver tumors. Polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAH's) have particularly been linked with liver tumors. Similar occurrences have been observed to some extent in European waters although scientists have not demonstrated a correlation with pollution (nor have they demonstrated that there is no correlation). There are indications that similar situations exist in other areas of the world, but there is not much data available. 8. Gender Shifts Many marine animals have the ability to change sex under changing environmental conditions or when exposed to certain types of natural compounds that may be exuded into the water by other species or others of the same species. This response can be artificially induced by some pollutants, including synthetic organic compounds that mimic estrogens. Consequently, such pollutants can have a devastating effect upon local populations of some species. 9. Coral Bleaching and Smothering Coral communities thrive in clear tropical seas that are low in nutrients and vary little in temperature. The coral system, with w evolved relationships among the species, does not respond well to nutrient enrichment or increasing temperatures. More and more commonly, nutrient rich sediments wash off nearby deforested lands, smothering the corals, enriching competing algal growth and degrading the intricate ecosystem. In addition, the occurrence of widespread bleaching of corals around the world has raised concern among coral reef biologists that these sentinels of marine environmental changes are presenting evidence of more serious problems to come. Bleaching (the release of the life-supporting symbiotic algae from the coral tissue), while not killing the coral outright, indicates a stress reaction that can only weaken the animals. While water pollution might be involved in creating the stress, it is more commonly thought that increased water temperature due to global warming, aggravated by air pollution from land based sources, is a likely cause. Corals have a very narrow temperature tolerance and in exceptionally warm periods, the upper temperature bounds may be exceeded. While the increases in temperature are not great nor expected to be so in equatorial waters, the extreme sensitivity and great importance of coral reefs make them an effective early indicator of serious trouble. 10. Sea Mammal Disease and Die-off Sea mammals are particularly good indicators of marine environmental problems, because many of them feed at the top of the food chain where effects of pollution are often magnified, and because they are more easily studied than many of the species inhabiting the ocean. In polluted waters such as the North Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico and the northeastern coast of the U.S., notable incidents of mass death and disease have been reported for certain species of dolphins and seals. The connection with pollution has only been hypothesized, but these events cannot be ignored in the context of mounting evidence of a myriad of serious impacts of increasing pollution in ocean waters. 11. Mass Mortalities of Other Marine Species The data is sparse and there are only sporadic indications of possible widespread trouble. Yet in the Caribbean and elsewhere, a pattern of mass mortalities is developing--fish, sea urchins, corals and other animals are included on the list. The patterns are just emerging and causes are unknown, but some scientists feel this phenomenon warrants close scrutiny. 12. Reproductive Failure in Seabirds Seabirds, like mammals, are good indicators of marine environmental degradation because they feed high on the marine food chain and they are relatively easy to study (compared to many underwater species). Contamination of the marine ecosystem by toxic pollutants has been blamed for many seabird maladies including birth deformities, failure of embryos to develop and hatch normally, and failure of adults to produce eggs. Since these birds tend to feed in fertile coastal and estuarine waters, where pollution is likely to be the greatest and the food animals are likely to have accumulated pollutants from these waters, they are extremely susceptible to the devastating effects of pollution from land-based sources. For instance, seabirds from the Great Lakes, the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the Atlantic coast of Canada have exhibited varying degrees of reproductive failure symptomatic of organochlorine contamination, including egg shell thinning and sharp reductions in hatching success. 13. Losses of Biodiverisity Typically, pollution causes a reduction in the numbers of species found in an ecosystem. Even when the system still appears to be relatively healthy, the biological complexity may have been reduced. When the pollution is toxic in nature, the more vulnerable species disappear, leaving only the tolerant ones. The production of those species remaining may increase or not, depending upon the extent and nature of the pollution. Even when the chief pollution is due to non-toxic nutrients, the biodiversity decreases significantly. The pulse of nutrients causes opportunistic algae to bloom to the exclusion of less successful competitors. The reduction in complexity of the base of the food chain causes a comparable loss of diversity in the higher trophic levels. Large scale losses of biodiversity in marine ecosystems will inevitably result in the permanent loss of genetic variability within species and even the loss of some species. 14. Oiled Birds and Mammals and Contaminated Food Chains Crisis events like oil spills receive worldwide press attention and are invariably associated with images of tragic numbers of seabirds and marine mammals coated with oil and drowning or dying of exposure. However, there is also a daily tragedy, of much smaller proportions in the short term but larger in the long term, caused by continuous discharges of small amounts of oil from maritime operations. Oil slicks that result can take scattered birds or mammals by surprise, coating them with the deadly film before they know to escape. In addition chronic ingestion of hydrocarbons can have a debilitating effect on the health of these and other marine animals. While not causing a spectacular loss of sealife at any one moment, these chronic effects of oil pollution can have far more devastating long-term effects globally. 15. Anoxia and Hypoxia Increasingly, large areas of estuarine or continental shelf waters exhibit reduction or depletion of oxygen during periods of stratification of the water (generally during the summer). Eutrophication results from increased loads of nutrients that wash out from rivers or fall out from the atmosphere and fertilize the marine ecosystem. Microalgae bloom in concentrations far exceeding the grazing potential of planktonic animals, so massive amounts end up in the decay cycle which causes very high oxygen demands, especially in bottom waters. The result is large anoxic or hypoxic zones where fish and shellfish may die or be driven out. This phenomenon is increasing worldwide and has been well documented in areas off the east coast of the US, in the Gulf of Mexico, and the Baltic Sea Some enclosed seas that have shallow sills and deep basins are particularly likely to have anoxic bottom waters, even under normal conditions, but this may increase and become more prevalent in shallow coastal waters with the effects of eutrophication-as has happened in the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea. The anoxic dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico lasts approximately 8 months of the year and can extend over several million acres. In 1986, it covered more than 2 million acres and was growing at the rate of 19% per year. All the areas mentioned have experienced dramatic losses of fisheries. 16. Radioactive Pollution Radioactive wastes have recently been banned from dumping in the sea (by amendment to the London Convention 1972). While this is an encouraging turn of events, dumping still continues in some parts of the world and even more importantly, discharge of radioactive wastes from land is increasing. The legacy of fifty years of careless disposal on land and in the sea plus ever increasing inputs from land-based facilities has converted the ocean into a source of radioactive contamination globally. These highly toxic materials, which endure in the environment "forever" as viewed from the perspective of human civilization, seep from old dump sites or are discharged from active facilities ashore--e.g. nuclear power plants and nuclear fuel reprocessing plants. Reprocessing plants in particular are on the rise at a time when safe alternatives (dry storage) are available. New sources of radionuclide pollution exist as reprocessing plants--LaHague in France, Sellafield and Dounready in the U.K and in several places in Russia. Japan is also planning to soon have a reprocessing plant. Ocean currents disperse the radionuclides widely exposing remote oceanic sea life as well as coastal ecosystems. They concentrate along with other toxins at the sea surface where sensitive reproductive stages of marine animals live, and having entered the biota at the surface, these contaminants are moved downward with organic debris and they enter the marine food chain from the top of the ocean to the bottom. 17. Microlayer Contamination The contamination of the sea surface is just recently being recognized as a problem in coastal waters worldwide and there is still a paucity of data to determine the extent and degree of the problem. Many organic and metallic molecules concentrate in the thin skin of the ocean in concentrations from several to thousands of times greater than those found in the "bulk" water beneath. These compounds may be of natural origin, but increasingly they also include synthetic organic substances and metal contamination originating from human activities on land. It has been shown that coastal and estuarine waters may have a contaminated microlayer highly toxic to the rich micro-biota that normally lives at the ocean surface, including sensitive eggs and larvae of economically important species. Significant declines in the surface layer plankton have been measured in the Black Sea, where 80% of the lost fisheries involve species with eggs that float in the surface microlayer. 17. Sediment Contamination The serious contamination of coastal marine sediments has become a vexing problem for those who need or want to dredge ports, harbors and shipping lanes. Because of the degree of contamination, it is often difficult to justify placing those sediments in some other location in the ocean or on land. As discouraging as this problem has been for the shipping industry and ports, it has been even more disastrous for the marine ecosystems in which the contaminated sediments rest or are dumped as dredged materials. Since those sediments become a source of toxins into the benthic fauna, the overlying water, and the marine food chain, they are a serious long-term threat to the integrity and survival of the ecosystem. Dredging and thereby stirring up these sediments only serves to accelerate the release of contaminants, so increased pollution occurs at both the site of the dredging and the site of disposal of the dredged materials. The only long term solution is to stop the sources of the contamination--chiefly land-based sources upstream. Major ports everywhere are experiencing these problems and only serious reduction and elimination of land-based sources of toxic substances will solve the problem in the long term. Complexity of Chemical Influx - A Clear Case for Caution Chemicals entering the aquatic environment from land based sources are extremely diverse. Evidence of this is found in contaminated marine sediments and in the discharges which give rise to such contamination. Both are chemically highly complex. For example in a recent analysis of Rotterdam harbour dredgings, 102 separate chemicals were identified, of which only half could be reliably identified. In effluents too, less than half of the chemicals can be routinely identified. The implication of this is clear: if it is not possible to identify the chemicals being discharged it is impossible to evaluate their environmental safety. The chemicals in complex discharges have been found to act additively on sensitive test species even when levels of individual chemicals are below those considered officially to be of concern. It is not only direct industrial discharges which are responsible for introducing a complex mixture of chemicals into the environment. Industrial effluents are discharged to sewers. In addition, domestic use of chemicals is substantial. Detergent products, for example, where surfactants alone amount to 15 million tonnes per annum globally are now under scrutiny. They are present in sewage effluents and sludges in gram per litre quantities. They can exert a wide variety of toxic effects upon marine organism and have been implicated in the development of female characteristics by male fish. Further, even in the case of those substances which are designated as priority pollutants, problems with analytical accuracy and precision mean that input estimates may vary by an order of magnitude making any protection strategy based upon percentage reductions highly suspect. Even in the North Sea, arguably one of the better monitored marine areas, sampling intensity and frequency is simply not great enough to detect input reductions to an acceptable level of statistical certainty. The reliability of estimates of environmental contamination based on biological sampling is also in some doubt. Long term analysis of levels of PCBs in cod in the North Sea has recently been confounded by the fact that overfishing has caused a reduction in the overall size of fish in the area. Where global estimates of contaminant fluxes have been attempted, the picture is daunting. Most of the known toxic metals are now being mobilised into the marine environment from anthropogenic sources in quantities which are equal to or exceed those due to natural geochemical cycles. Another element for which natural geochemical cycles have been overwhelmed is chlorine, mercury stands out as a particular example and it is widely accepted that a significant contributor to global mercury contamination is the chlor-alkali industry which manufactures chlorine. Currently, world consumption of chlorine gas is some 40 million tonnes. Much of this is converted to organochlorines and released to the environment through processes such as pulp bleaching, sewage disinfection, PVC manufacture, direct synthesis of chlorinated chemicals, solvents and CFCs. The solvents and CFCs are best known for their role in ozone layer destruction and low level atmospheric pollution, but nonetheless these chemicals are widely distributed in marine waters. Many chlorinated chemicals, because they have no natural counterparts are extremely persistent in the marine environment. The ecological effects of pesticides such as DDT, aldrin and dieldrin have been known for some time. Although many countries now restrict their production and use, some are still in production. PCBs are another group of organochlorines which although subject to production bans are still entering the environment from dumps and from current applications. Recently, the pesticide toxaphene has been found at high levels in fish and dolphins from the North Atlantic despite being taken out of use in 1983. This pesticide, like many organochlorines is transported large distances in the atmosphere, condensing out at higher, colder latitudes. High levels of organochlorines in polar bears and seals in the Arctic, remote from industrial sources, are evidence of the insidious global transport of these toxic, persistent and bioaccumulative chemicals into pristine ecosystems. The group of organochlorines which cause the greatest concern are the chlorinated dioxins. These chemicals began to enter the marine environment in large quantities as the chlorine industry developed from the 1920's onwards. Today there are few ecosystems which are not contaminated by these chemicals which are an inevitable by-product of the production, use and disposal of chlorinated chemicals. Recently, the carcinogenic properties of these chemicals have been confirmed at the site of the Seveso accident, while other research has shown that these chemicals exert profound changes on immune systems and reproduction in many animals. Overall, the demonstrated undesirable characteristics of organochlorines has led to initiatives to regulate them as a group rather than on a single substance by substance basis. The Paris Convention is one international forum which has taken such a direction. A similar approach could be profitably extended to other groups such as the PAHs and metals in order to increase environmental protection from complex chemical discharges. How Toxic Pollution Impairs Living Organisms and Living Ecosystems: Toxic pollutants, which include synthetic substances such as PCBs and pesticides and natural substances such as heavy metals, may have acute and/or chronic effects. Acute toxicity is often used as the guideline for how much of such a material is dangerous. However, that is only the easiest effect to monitor and is by no means the commonest or most important in the long term. While quick death is an effect observed during spills of toxic substances or possibly among sensitive life stages in contaminated surface waters, sublethal or delayed lethal effects are more pervasive. The chronic or delayed lethal impacts of toxic pollution upon individual organisms may be the result of external exposure to the toxins or the result of ingesting them and incorporating them into their tissue, often bioaccumulating them to concentrations much greater than those in the surrounding water. Adsorption directly from contaminated sediments or floating particles or the surface layer film is also possible. Biomagnification may occur such that contaminants accumulate in progressively greater concentrations as they are transferred up the food chain. Thus top predators can be expected to contain the highest concentration of contaminants and often to exhibit the greatest adverse effects associated with them. The synergistic effects of contaminants on an organism may include a multitude of problems and an overall weakened condition. Common problems are chronic disease, chromosomal damage, genetic or developmental maladies, reproductive disfunction, physiological malfunctions, and disruption of social interactions. The same can be said for the effects of contaminants on ecosystems. The whole ecosystem may become weakened by the poor functioning of its parts (i.e. species and populations). Reduced species diversity is a typical symptom of contaminated ecosystems--caused as the weaker species move out or die out. Toxins usually reduce productivity in an ecosystem, while eutrophication may increase it. However, in either case, the decline in biological diversity compromises the functions of the ecosystem (some of them valuable to humans) and makes the system more vulnerable to collapse. These effects may be most pronounced at the interfaces between air and sea or sea and submarine sediments. Toxic materials tend to accumulate in these areas in much greater concentrations (several to thousand of times greater) than in the bulk water that makes up most of the ocean. Consequently, the first and most pronounced adverse effects of pollution are likely to be exhibited by organisms living in the sea surface microlayer (which is almost never monitored) or the benthic life on/in submarine sediments. Often scientists suggest that the majority of persistent toxic substances entering the marine environment accumulate in the sediments where they are bound (seemingly forever) and thus pose no threat because they are in large part not "bioavailable." This is extremely misleading (reminiscent of the "assimilative capacity" notions), because in a dynamic environment like the ocean, there is no chemical equilibrium, and toxic contaminants leach out of the sediments into turbulent waters above or they are consumed by the biota directly or toxins are transferred from non-living particles to living tissue on contact. Radionuclides from Chernobyl Contaminate Deep Sea Biota The Chernobyl nuclear accident occurred on 26 April 1986. Sediment traps in 200 meters of ocean water near Corsica measured a pulse of radionuclide seven days after the peak fallout, suggesting a sinking rate of 29 meters per day. Similar results were noted in the North Sea and the Black Sea. The sinking is the result of the uptake of radionuclides by plankton (microscopic plants and animals) in the surface waters and the subsequent production of fecal pellets by the tiny animals. These rapidly sink through the water, delivering a radioactive food supply to deep water pelagic animals and animals that live on the bottom. Though biological effects of this phenomenon have not been studied, there is a clear potential for harm to the marine community and to humans who might harvest and eat contaminated animals. Gage and Tyler (1991) Organochlorines in the Arctic Ocean Organochlorines occur as pesticides, industrial solvents, and CFCs and arise from incineration, PVC production, and water treatment. The Arctic region is especially susceptible to these chemicals. Air currents transport semi-volatile chlorinated compounds from the industrialised areas of Europe, North America and agricultural areas of Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the southern United States into this pristine environment. Even in Countries where application of certain chlorinated pesticides has been restricted or eliminated, persistent soil residues may continue to volatilise and be redistributed by the atmosphere. At the sea surface, organochlorines are passed poleward through a leapfrogging alternation of volatilization (accompanied by air transport) and condensation. The conditions in the Arctic Ocean exacerbate the problem by favoring the build-up of organochlorine concentrations due to low temperatures, poor mixing, sudden snow melt with its load of pollutants. The generally simple structure of polar communities may render them vulnerable to chemical disturbances. Large aquatic mammals rely on thick layers of blubber for insulation and food reserves, allowing uptake and storage of large quantities of toxic, lipophilic compounds. When the lipids are metabolized, accumulated chemicals are released and cause toxic effects and may be passed to the offspring in the milk. Of particular concern is the chemical burden suffered by the indigenous peoples of the Arctic. For example, levels of PCBs measured in breast milk of Inuit women from northern Quebec were five times that measured in a group of Caucasian women in southern Quebec. Eutrophication in the Black Sea During the past few decades, the ecology of the Black Sea has changed significantly due to several human impacts, including runoff of toxic materials, new species introduced by discharge of ship ballast water, fishing pressures, and increase of nutrient inflow. The process of eutrophication is caused by increased nutrient loads entering the Black Sea, primarily through major river systems. The inflow into the northwest shelf area (historically the most productive area) of phosphate has increased by a factor of about 6 and nitrate by a factor of about 2 over the past 60 years. This has led to dense blooms of microalgae with different species composition, resulting in a change in the dominant zooplankton species away from the better food species and toward the smaller and gelatinous species. This in turn has affected the fish composition. There are more smaller fish and the number of commercially harvested species has decreased from 23 to 5. Eutrophication has also led to large coastal areas where oxygen becomes depleted near the bottom due to large amounts of decomposing phytoplankton. The area and duration of anoxic conditions varies from year to year, but it has covered as much as 16,000 square km. or a quarter of the shelf area. This results in a reduction in benthic populations of invertebrates and bottom fish. In addition, a decline of 90% in the cetacean population since the 1950's is considered a consequence of severe eutrophication of this inland sea. Besides the impacts attributed to eutrophication, there have been notable declines or disappearances of several species that seem associated with toxic pollution. Certain species characteristically found in the sea-surface skin (the microlayer) have declined as an apparent result of the accumulation of toxic substances in that thin layer of water. Ref. Zaitsev, 1992 Conclusion There is clearly a need to recognize global marine environmental deterioration due to the effects of pollution and to formalize effective goals and methods of reaching those goals internationally. The Montreal Guidelines constitute the only formal global agreement and, while they do acknowledge the need to address the problem of toxic pollution in the world ocean, they are outdated in many respects. In the intervening years since their adoption, it has been widely recognized that the assimilative capacity approach does not provide an effective restraint upon pollution in the marine environment. Ocean management based upon controlled emissions which in turn are based upon a determination (requiring proof) of levels in the environment that will cause harm has led us to a state in which most coastal waters are polluted, some critically so. Furthermore, the increasing complexity of chemicals in effluents from land clearly argues against substance by substance standards. No longer does it make sense to set levels of toxic contamination that can be reached but not exceeded, since in most coastal waters the levels that cause harm have already been exceeded. The principle role for emission standards relative to today's ocean is to set moving targets for reducing the input of toxic materials--standards with an incremental movement toward zero. In many cases these goals should be applied to whole classes of toxic chemicals, such as organohalogens. In the case of nutrient pollution, while total elimination may not be the goal, there are effective means to significantly prevent inputs of nutrients, such as ecologically sustainable agriculture methods). There is an urgent need for a new program of action involving a suite of global, regional, subregional, and national initiatives. The program of action should accomplish the following: adopt the precautionary approach and setting clear goals, methods and time tables for preventing, reducing and eliminating land-based sources of pollution through zero discharge strategies and the application of clean production processes, incorporate the polluter pays principle, and define guidelines for financing effective regional programs. The precautionary approach is seen by its critics as a prescription for stopping development and enterprise. Quite to the contrary, it is a pro-active approach that requires that human enterprise be turned toward finding new ways to accomplish our human goals while protecting the environment upon which all such enterprise is fully dependent. It is a challenge to our capacity to invent and prosper but to do it in a way that is compatible with the survival of life and living ecosystems. The "do nothing" approach is to keep on with our current patterns of development and continue with our polluting production technologies and literally do nothing until the damage is done. Appendix I Regional Conventions and Protocols Specifically Addressing Land- based Sources: A few regional agreements address the need to reduce and eliminate contaminants entering the marine environment from land based sources. With varying strength of commitment the serious reduction and elimination of land-based sources of pollution has become a goal of countries surrounding the Baltic Sea, the Black Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Northeast Atlantic including the North Sea. Not surprisingly, these more serious commitments have sprung up among countries along coastlines that have become so badly contaminated that the deleterious effects upon living marine ecosystems and upon humans that rely upon them can no longer be ignored. These impacts have developed over the past century due to expansive and initially uncurtailed industrialisation. They portend similar coastal crises in other parts of the world that are patterning their own development after the industrialised North. The most forward looking agreement, in its geographic scope as well as its approach to the elimination of toxic inputs into the marine environment, is the new 1992 Convention on the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic (OSPAR). It has been signed by the eight countries surrounding the North Sea as well as Ireland, Spain, Portugal and Iceland and even by Switzerland and Luxembourg, two land-locked countries that contribute to the pollution of the North-East Atlantic by way of the Rhine River. The Baltic and Black seas are the most severely affected by pollution, but the Mediterranean and North Seas also show disturbing signs of severe degradation, and the North-East Atlantic is threatened by pollution pouring out of these coastal seas and directly off the land of the continent and nearby islands. It was not difficult to read the signs of trouble in these waters: collapsed fisheries, extensive problem algal blooms, anoxia often with fish kills, truncated or destroyed food chains, diseased and deformed fish, seabirds and sea mammals and contaminated submarine sediments and shorelines. Some observers have tried to diminish the severity of the problems in the Mediterranean and North Seas by claiming them to be localized; but this is not an accurate depiction of the situation. Though impacts may vary locally in intensity due to circulation patterns, wind patterns and locations of major river effluents, they are expressed to some extent on a much broader scale and need to be addressed on a regional basis. Furthermore, the sources of the pollution are varied and do not necessarily originate in the immediate vicinity of noticed impacts. Countries surrounding the Baltic and Black Seas, and parts of the Mediterranean are dealing with crisis situations in which their marine ecosystems have suffered profound adverse changes. In other areas, where island states rely heavily upon a healthy ocean for their food and economic well being, the importance of reducing or avoiding land based source pollution has been recognized and moderate efforts to restrict it have been or are being crafted (The South-East Pacific, the South Pacific and the Caribbean). Conventions for protecting the marine environment against pollution also exist for the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea, the coastal marine environment of West and Central Africa, and the coastal marine environment of East Africa. The importance of protecting the marine environment from toxic pollution has also been recognized in the London Convention, MARPOL (The Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships), and the Basel Convention, which address pollution from ships and the dumping and transport of wastes at sea and the transboundary movements of hazardous wastes. Four regional conventions that contain provisions for restricting pollution from land-based sources represent advances in principle beyond the Montreal Guidelines and should be considered in any attempt to craft a new global agreement on land-based sources. These involve the countries around the Baltic, Black, Mediterranean and North-East Atlantic Ocean respectively: Convention on the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Baltic Sea Area. The Baltic Sea was one of the first large marine ecosystems recognized to be an environmental disaster due to the heavy pollution from industry and chemical intensive agriculture in the countries surrounding the enclosed sea. It was the focus of the first international regional program to address land-based marine pollution--the 1974 Helsinki Convention, which was revised in 1992. The Contracting Parties agreed to "take all appropriate legislative, administrative, or other relevant measure in order to prevent and abate pollution. .." The Convention has a black list of prohibited substances for which parties agree to prevent discharges and a gray list of pesticides to be minimized or banned. The 1992 revision (not yet in force) adopts the precautionary principle and establishes the need to implement the best clean production technologies available. The Helsinki Commission has also set a goal of 50% emissions reduction from 1987 levels, to be achieved by 1995. Convention for the Protection of the Black Sea Against Pollution. The Black Sea has been the victim of intense pollution from land based sources and dumping combined with a disastrous invasion of introduced species from ballast water. The 1992 Convention contains a Land Based Sources Protocol which commits the Contracting Parties to "take all necessary measure to prevent, reduce and control Pollution of the marine environment of the Black Sea caused by discharges from land-based sources on their territories such as rivers, canals, coastal establishments, other artificial structures, outfalls or run-off, or emanating from any other land-based source, including through the atmosphere." To accomplish this objective the Contracting Parties are to prevent and eliminate pollution by listed hazardous substances and matter; and they are further to reduce and, where possible, to eliminate listed noxious substances and matter. Common emission standards and specific timetables for implementing the agreed goals are to be set and periodically reviewed by the Contracting Parties. Convention of the Mediterranean Sea Against Pollution (Barcelona Convention). The Mediterranean Sea has shown signs of a deteriorating marine environment for more than two decades. The problems were great enough to inspire the states bordering the Sea to sign the Barcelona Convention in 1976 and a land-based sources protocol (the Athens Protocol) in 1980. The Parties agreed to "take all appropriate measures...to prevent, abate, combat and control pollution...caused by discharges from rivers, coastal establishments or outfalls, or emanating from any other land- based sources within their territory, including airborne pollution. The Protocol defines a black list of substances for which pollution should be eliminated through common emission standards and standards for use and a gray list of substances for which pollution should be strictly limited through joint or individual programmes and measures. Common emissions standards have been adopted for the black list and since 1991, the parties have applied the precautionary approach in the implementation process of the protocol provisions and agreed to "facilitate access to and transfer of clean production methods, including clean technologies, in particular to promote a transition to clean production in order to reduce and eliminate the amount of waste generated, and to ensure that the above measures do not result in additional pollution in other parts of the environment." The Barcelona Convention and its protocols are scheduled to be revised in 1995. This timing is particularly interesting in light of the current UNEP process on land-based sources, which is scheduled to culminate in 1995. The two processes should provide inspiration for each other and offer an opportunity to establish a model for implementing a global action plan at a regional level. This, of course, presupposes that the global process will result in a progressive set of guidelines and action plan suitable to the advanced level of commitment to eliminating marine pollution from land that has evolved in the context of the Mediterranean. The Convention for the Prevention of Marine Pollution from Landbased Sources (1974 Paris Convention) and the Convention for the Protection of the North-east Atlantic (1992 Ospar Convention). The North Sea is a semi-enclosed part of the north-east Atlantic which has been subject to intense pollution from industrialised Europe. The waters are fairly well flushed, with a residence time of approximately two years. Nevertheless, sediments in the region accumulate much of the toxic materials entering the marine environment and become sources of pollution over long periods of time. In addition, by virtue of circulation, basin topography, and riverine effluent, some areas are severely influenced by pollution. Beyond the North Sea, up to the Arctic Sea at the North and into the eastern North Atlantic to the south and west, coastal waters are affected by effluent from the continent, the large seas and several major islands. The 1974 Paris Convention is currently in force, but will be replaced by the 1992 North-East Atlantic Convention when it is ratified. Pollutants are characterized by three main properties- persistence, toxicity or noxious properties, and tendency to bioaccumulate and listed substances are to be limited to amounts which do not cause adverse effects. The new convention adds to the standing commitment to prevent pollution, an emphasis on the precautionary principle, best available techniques and best environmental practices, sustainable management, and the polluter pays principle. It contains 5 Annexes, including one on land based sources (LBS), and provides an excellent model for the global LBS process to follow. Indeed, instead of trying to update the outmoded Montreal Guidelines, it would be far more prudent and effective to begin with the most modern representation of the past 20 years of experience with land- based sources of marine pollution and moving on from that. What sense does it make to spend great effort and expense developing something less than is already available? In this context, it is particularly important to note that the Ministerial Conference at which the OSPAR Convention was signed also adopted the OSPAR Action Plan. 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Washington D.C. 180pp. Wells, P.G. and S.J. Rolston (eds) 1991. Health of our oceans: a status report on Canadian marine environmental quality. Environment Canada Ottawa 166pp. Williams, E.H. Jr., and L.B. Williams. 1987. Caribbean mass mortalities: a problem with a solution. Oceanus 30(4):69-75. Williams, E.H. Jr. and L.Bunkley-Williams. 1990. Recurring mass mortalities of Caribbean herrings: implications for the study of major marine ecological disturbances. Journal of Aquatic Animal Health 2(3): 230-236. Zaitsev, Y.P. 1992. Recent changes in the trophic structure of the Black Sea Fisheries Oceanography. 1:180-189. Greenpeace International (GPI) is indebted to Boyce Thorne- Miller, Ocean Advocates, for her role in preparing this paper. For further information concerning this paper or related LBS topics, contact Clifton Curtis, GPI, 1436 U St., N.W. Washington D.C. 20009 (Tel: 1-202-462-1177); or Siubhan Leslie, GPI, Keizersgraeht 176, 1016 DW, Amsterdam, Netherlands (Tel: 31-20-523-6555).