Enemies of the Ocean

Despite covering 70% of our Earth, flourishing with life and ecosystems, sustaining us as humans, our oceans can be detrimental to our wellbeing. Whether it be providing us with oxygen, taking part in imports and exports of our economy, or keeping the planet's temperature in balance, we need the ocean and all that it provides. However, several factors negatively affect our oceans, one of the most important being marine vessels. Marine vessels of all kinds continue to be one of the defining reasons why our oceans are dying. Shipping vessels dumping oil, cruise ships dumping people's sewage, boats killing marine animals on their voyages, and years of ocean pollution continue to negatively affect our ocean's health and torment us about what is to come in the future. Many people are seemingly unaware of the dangers these vessels pose to our oceans, to marine wildlife, and us as humans. In a world that is so ever-connected, it is fundamental to understand the vicious roles these marine vessels play in the health of oceans and of our Earth. By doing so, we can create new conversations on preexisting topics to formulate solutions that preserve our ocean's health. Marine vessels deplete the health of our oceans by dumping pollution, contaminating the water, and killing ecosystems; however, this can be mitigated by increasing education, changing public policy, and evolving technology. 

Marine vessels take part in the depleting health of our oceans by being responsible for large amounts of pollution being dumped into our waters. This pollution happens and is rarely regulated due to the large number of ships in our waters. Our oceans are used for marine vessels to operate the standard business in various ways: shipping, cargo, cruises, fishing domestically and internationally. World trade would be severely affected according to Oceana, an organization dedicated to ocean conservancy, because without using the oceans "over 90 percent is carried across the world's oceans by some 90,000 marine vessels" (1). As time continues, global trade through the sea continues to grow, as highlighted in the Frontier Editorial “Impacts of Shipping on Marine Fauna” where this activity saw an increase by 4.4% as of 2018 (Erbe et al. 2020). Many of these marine vessels carry large amounts of oil and petroleum, which poses a grave risk for the water below. Analysis from the Coast Guard in their GAO Report on “Improved Analysis of Vessel Response Plan Use Could Help Mitigate Marine Pollution Risk” exemplified "in 2019, nearly 17 billion gallons of crude oil or other refined petroleum products were transported as cargo...these vessels can pose a significant risk to the marine environment if they were to be involved in an incident that results in their discharge of oil" (Anderson 6). Another factor leading to the cause of pollution from these vessels is overpopulation, where consumption in our economy is constantly changing. In response to this, people who are a less economic advantage of operating these vessels are seemingly more likely to fall victim to breaking regulations regarding dumping marine pollution as highlighted in Vessel-Source Marine Pollution: The Law and Politics of International Regulation by Alan Khee-Jin Tan, an academic book analyzing the unfair regulation of marine pollution resulting from vessels at an economic and political standpoint. Those who are rendering ships and are basing the economy and attempting to meet the needs of these people have no choice but to take part in these actions of "discharging wastes into the oceans and neglecting safety standards to the point of introducing risks of marine accidents'' (Tan 11). Such analysis allows us to identify real cases in which events have happened. For example, when the supertanker Exxon Valdez touched the ground during their sail causing their ship to spill 11 million gallons of oil. Upon this massive spill, 1,200 miles of Alaska's coastlines grew contaminated (Anderson 6). By transporting a cargo of this magnitude, there is a high risk as anything could go wrong, not to mention the ocean and water are both very unpredictable, which adds to the risk for disaster. We have seen this happen before on multiple other occasions, with the Deepwater Horizon spill in 2010, the Keystone Pipeline spill in 2016, and the Mediterranean spill in 2021, to name a few. Time and time again, we have seen multiple oil spills and their effects on our oceans and the marine life living in them. Yet, there is very little change ever talked about. We only hear in the news that there was yet another spill, and we can hope for the best. No enforcement of talk about change. There have been no active efforts to prevent such from happening again. 

Beyond cargo ships being responsible for mass marine pollution, cruise ships also play a significant role in the depleting health of our oceans through water contamination. Thousands set sail from port to port, carrying thousands of passengers on their voyages. Oceana, an organization dedicated to helping stop ocean pollution and promoting conservancy, reported statistics they gathered from cruise ships. Their findings allow us to see the detrimental effect these vessels have on our oceans. As Oceana explains, "each day a cruise ship generates as much as 30,000 gallons of sewage, also called black water, 255,000 gallons of dirty water from showers, sinks, laundries, and dishwashers...7,000 gallons of oily bilge water...smokestack and exhaust emissions equivalent to 12,000 cars" (3). Now, these seem like numbers; however, these massive amounts of sewage and dirty water produced by cruise ships can be dumped anywhere in the ocean thanks to most laws. By doing this, a breeding ground for various diseases and bacteria begins to grow, affecting the ocean's ecosystems, killing fish and coral, and eventually affecting us as humans (Oceana 3). Yet, few people acknowledge these cruise ships' consequences on our environment and what they do to the water they sail in. Many seemingly don't know how these ships operate, and it is only when we dive into this issue that we come across the harsh reality of such. However, with no end in sight for the use of marine vessels for economic development and tourism, addressing how we can minimize pollution is vital to protecting our ocean environment.

Another significant way marine vessels negatively affect our oceans is by killing the ecosystems that live below them. As contaminants get dumped into the water from the ships above, this affects the ecosystems that lie below the surface. These actions continue to negatively affect our marine ecosystems noted by Troy Brynes and Ryan Dunn in the Journal of Marine Science and Engineering “Boating And Shipping - Related Environmental Impacts and Example Management Measures: A Review.” The damage on life under the sea is far from few as vessel noise, and emissions alone are responsible for the compromise of "physical habitat and vegetation destruction through anchor damage, vessel groundings and wash, and fauna behavior modification" (Brynes & Dunn 3). Damage like this can then lead to more destructive, more complicated damage like hitting one domino and watching them all fall after one another. What could have started as physical damage from a vessel trudging through the sea could lead to chemical dumping and eventually biological issues? This, in turn, ends up ruining entire ecosystems without even a second glance. Whether it be that the people operating these people are unaware of the effects of their ships or that they do not care, their actions have more than just one minor consequence, but one of a larger, more destructive scale that has irreversible outcomes. Even more, highlighted in the Global Citizen news article “87% Of Our Oceans Are Damaged by Human IMPACT, Report Warns” written by Joe McCarthy and Erica Sanchez, the destruction of these marine ecosystems affects us as humans. As the ocean absorbs carbon dioxide from these actions along with sewage, oil, and any other sort of pollutants, the ocean water becomes more and more acidic over time, and temperatures begin to rise, making it harder for marine life to thrive (McCarthy & Sanchez 1). As marine ecosystems suffer trying to flourish, the first affected are coral reefs that affect their predators and then their predators up the food chain. Sea Shepherd, an organization fighting to save our oceans by putting an end to the destruction done by marine vessels, analyzes that this is where we come in. When these ecosystems begin to die out, this, in turn, affects our fisheries, and without fish, our economy is heavily impacted (Sea Shepherd UK 1). Not to mention, apart from this, the ocean accounts for anywhere between 50-80% of the world's oxygen, where a majority comes from bacteria, algae, and plankton that take part in photosynthesis. As we lose our coral reefs, we would lose these powerhouses. According to NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the amount of oxygen being delivered to us would be significantly less, which would become detrimental to our wellbeing  (1). One must understand that by taking steps to preserve our ocean's health, we are also maintaining our own, visible when we recognize the effects of marine vessels on the life below the shore and us humans.

To tackle our declining ocean health due to marine vessels, we must increase education on this issue before anything. We often hear about the impacts ships have on our oceans, but the solutions from those conversations are minimal. Gotthard M. Gauci, author of the scholarly article "Protection of the Marine Environment through the International Ship-Source Oil Pollution Compensation Regimes," stresses the fact that "vessel pollution has been said to be 'the most obvious and widely publicized source of marine pollution'" (1). We know our oceans are dying, yet the answer why tends to be cloudy. It's not just one cause, but several different factors in which boats are seemingly always last on the blame list. By educating the people operating these ships and ourselves, we widen the floor to bring better discussion and new ideas as to how we can help conserve our ocean with the time we have left. Educating one another on not only why our oceans are dying but how these marine vessels play into that through pollution and water contamination that kills the ocean life below, we can understand how detrimental these vessels are to open waters and that if we don't take action soon, we will be in trouble. The mismanaging of the protection of our oceans has become clear, but the lines are blurred on what is wrong and what is right. Addressed by Christopher Stone in the scholarly article “Can the Oceans Be Harboured? A Four Step Plan for the 21st Century” there exemplifies a faint line for who to call when policies and regulations are being crossed, a line that makes us wonder when "the sea is degraded, particularly the open sea beyond national jurisdiction, who is on hand to keep watch?" (44). It is almost impossible to educate others on the topic if we cannot negotiate an order or hierarchy of people responsible for enforcing public policy on marine vessels to the fullest extent. Yet, education is one of the most critical steps in aiding marine vessels wreaking havoc on our oceans. Therefore, we must follow suit with a series of steps to form order and establish the regulation of maritime ships out on the water. We need to educate and use tools and strategies to develop proper legislation, industry self-regulation and create and follow appropriate management and guidelines (Brynes & Dunn 2). Educating one another on the issue of marine vessels affecting our ocean's health is crucial because, without it, we would remain stagnant in formulating solutions while the problem continues to progress.

Changing public policies in response to the effects marine vessels have on our oceans is incredibly necessary. As marine vessels, cruise ships, and fishing boats continue to sail in our seas; they must realize the effects their actions have on the ocean and shift to sailing in a more eco-friendly manner. In efforts to help solve pollution, the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 was passed, forcing regulations and response plans needing to be put in place by these marine vessels. However, these regulations continue to be loosely enforced and rarely ever acknowledged allowing people on these ships to bend the rules and go unnoticed. In further attempts to aid ocean health declining due to the impact of marine vessels sailing in our oceans, creating ocean zones where controlled discharges are allowed was posed as a possible solution. Within these zones that states decided on, containers were permitted to dump 500 parts per million of oil into the water below. These zones were the topic of conversation which led to various conferences that helped make marine vessels more friendly to the environment, resulting in persuasion by the United States and the United Kingdom for all states to adopt these zones (Tan 107) finally. Creating these zones allowed hope for the ocean's health, that pollution would fall to a minimum, and our coastlines would be less affected thanks to zoning.Furthermore, no anchor zones have also been determined in various parts of our oceans to protect the habitats that grow in these areas and encourage expansion (Brynes & Dune 4). However, creating zones limiting pollution, anchoring, and dumping is just one of the many steps that need to be done to take actions with marine vessels and make them more eco-friendly as they set sail. These efforts are simply the beginning of a long road ahead.

Implementing evolved and advanced technology onto marine vessels also allows for the improvement of the health of our oceans. As decades have come and gone, technology has only gotten increasingly more advanced and is now lending a hand in saving our planet. This has allowed us to take old techniques and replace them with alternative methods of technology with even the most specific tasks such as anchoring and mooring vessels which "often represent a key disturbance to seagrass and other benthic habitats as a result of chain drag" (Brynes & Dunn 4). Traditionally, these tasks would be responsible for smashing coral reefs and the livelihood produced around them; however, new technology evolutions have allowed for scanning of the anchor floor without physical touch. The development of new energy-friendly engines, new antifouling agents, and new environmentally friendly moorings are just a few of the recent advancements being introduced to marine vessels (Byrnes & Dunn 2). Beyond this, the integration of technology that is now solar powered has allowed ships to become more eco-friendly in their depreciation of producing fossil fuels. Analyzed in the scholarly article “Control of Hybrid Diesel/PV/Battery/Ultracapacitor Systems for Future Shipboard Microgrids” implementation of solar technology came about once it was predicted by the International Marine Organization "that for entire international shipping, the CO2 emissions are found to be 2.2%..by 2050, CO2 emissions from an entire international shipping might rise by 50-250%" (Mutarraf et al. 2019). Many solutions were suggested to help combat this issue, such as wind and solar recovery systems, alternative fuels, even hybrid methods to move marine vessels. Yet, they all ran into problems with response time and the need to run off of some battery, which allowed solar technology to make the most sense (Mutarraf et al., 2019). By using eco-friendly technology, we can heavily reduce our carbon footprint, especially when working with large machinery such as these vessels. There has been constant debate between what technology allows these ships to operate fastest and most efficiently and what technology will enable them to perform the most safely. This issue has been addressed when deciding specific things such as battery types for energy storage technologies on ships. Lead batteries were the first ones introduced on boats as they could be recycled yet, their short shelf life and low energy called for a switch to lithium-ion batteries with higher energy life and all-around higher voltage. However, price and overall safety concerns remained an issue with this battery as these batteries are known to decompose in higher temperatures (Mutarraf et al. 4). From examples like these, we can see how even the most minor changes, such as battery type, impact how eco-friendly marine vessels are. The choice is not just one large one to go eco-friendly or not, but rather a series in which each decision affects a better tomorrow.

Now some may say that the actions of marine vessels are not a cause for the depleting health of our oceans. The issue of pollution is standard for international trade and shipping ventures that the new implementation of advanced technology on these ships is nothing more than a cash grab. The zoning system had significant flaws as "flag states lack the incentive to control the polluting activities of their flag vessels in other states' waters" (Tan 108). That the issue of marine vessels on our ocean health should easily be ignored since "95 percent of world trade, by weight, continues to be conducted by sea" (Tan 11). What measures are put in place, so we did all we can do. However, the issue of marine vessels being responsible for the depleting health of our oceans goes far beyond just these minimal arguments. While different types of pollution affect our oceans - ship pollution, land pollution, and atmospheric pollution-pollution is still pollution at the end of the day. Immense amounts of pollution for that matter argued by Jelena Culin and Toni Bielic in their research article “Plastic Pollution from Ships” presented in the Annals of Maritime Studies/Pomorski Zbornik, which displays the historical increase of pollution particles through studies in 1982 where "merchant ships were estimated to deposit 639,000 plastic containers daily worldwide...with continuous growth since 1950, global annual production..rose to 299 million tons in 2013" (Culin & Bielic 2). As we evolve as a society, developing more advanced technology makes the most sense to implement it to help save our world, which can be done through marine vessels. It's no longer just an oil spill or just dumping sewage into the water but an action that has serious consequences. An effort that kills sea life and ecosystems compromises the wellbeing of what lives in the ocean and what lives outside of it. According to statistics retrieved by the Center for Biological Diversity for their study on vessel strikes, their findings emphasize "collisions with vessels are one of the most frequent causes of premature death for several highly endangered marine animals" (1). Marine animals should not have to die at the expense of our ships. Our coastlines should not be contaminated because of repeated oil spills. There is little control or regulation on the effects of marine vessels on our oceans, and the time to change that is now. Without change, we will no longer have the flourishing, healthy oceans we once knew but decaying ecosystems with bleached coral that harms our human civilization.

In regards to the depleting health of the ocean, marine vessels fall responsible for dumping pollution, contaminating our water, and killing our ecosystems. From these issues, it is necessary to pose possible solutions through education, implementing public policy, and advancing technology to give hope to our oceans and the life that thrives below and above them. If we do not shine a light on this issue and formulate solutions to such, the flourishing oceans we once knew of will no longer exist, and not only will marine ecosystems become affected, but ours will as well. We must take effective action on this issue by opening conversations for creative solutions and not be afraid to get involved before it is too late. 

Accreditation To:

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Brynes, Troy A, and Ryan J.K. Dunn. “Boating - And Shipping-Related Environmental

Impacts And Example Management Measures: A Review.” Journal of Marine Science and Engineering, 12 Nov. 2020. 

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Report Warns.” Global Citizen, 26 July 2018, www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/87-of-worlds-oceans-are-dying-climate-change/.

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Systems for Future Shipboard Microgrids.” Energies (19961073), vol. 12, no. 18, Sept. 2019, p. 3460. EBSCOhost, doi:10.3390/en12183460.

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