Tag: marine

Eye of Fire – Marine disasters

Introduction

A recent picture of fire on the ocean, called ‘eye of fire’ has been going viral. This picture was captured in the west of Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula on 2nd July 2021. The reason for this fire was a gas leak of an underwater pipeline of the state oil company known as Pemex. The origin of the fire was an underwater pipeline that connects to a platform at the Ku Maloob Zaap oil development. The fire took more than five hours to put out. The company Pemex has a long history of major industrial accidents at their facilities. The fire was put out using Nitrogen by the company workers. Such incidents keep making us wonder about the marine ecosystem and how these activities keep endangering it. Although this was an accident of gas leak from inside, it reminds us of the many oil spills that keep occurring and the effect they have on the marine ecosystem.

Mauritius Oil Spill

On July 25, 2020, a Japanese-operated ship named MV Wakshio hit a coral reef on the coast of Mauritius. The vessel carried 4000 tonnes of crude oil out of which more than 1000 tonnes of oil leaked from the crack in an environmentally sensitive region which polluted the coral reefs, beaches, and lagoons of the island, and an environmental emergency was declared by the Prime Minister of Mauritius. This leak has caused a lot of damage and will continue to for years because of its location being near two environmentally protected marine ecosystems and the Blue Bay Marine Park reserve. These oil spills don’t just affect for the time being till they are cleaned up, the soluble compounds of the oil dissolve in the water and form a layer on the surface of the water which affects the whole marine ecosystem. The toxic hydrocarbons released from the spill bleach the coral reefs which are a very important part of Mauritius, and because of this bleaching, they will eventually die. The oil is less dense than the saltwater so it floats over the water which ends up sticking to the fur and feather of the marine animals and the birds which harms the water-repelling properties of their skin which can then expose them to the cold. Moreover, swallowing the oil can poison them.

The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

This spill of 2010 is known as the biggest oil spill in the United States with a spill of more than 200 million gallons of oil. It was found that the spill changed the amount of sediment collection on the bottom of the sea and choked them of oxygen. The reef fish changed after the spill, it absorbed some of the oil-source contaminants. This spill endangered the food chain and more than 400 species. It also severely affected dolphins of the area, there were a lot of stillbirths or baby dolphins with abnormal or underdeveloped lungs and seriously ill adult dolphins with drastically low blood sugar, low weight, and some were found with liver cancer and lung cancer.

Exxon Valdez Oil Spill

This disaster was caused by an oil tanker named Exxon Valdez which spilled 11 million gallons of crude oil into Alaska’s Prince William Sound on March 24, 1989. It killed around 2,50,000 sea birds, 3000 otters, 300 seals, 250 bald eagles, and 22 killer whales. It also played a role in the collapse of salmon and herring fisheries which resulted in fishermen going bankrupt and the economy suffering.

Environmental Effects

Seeing three important cases of Oil spills above we can discuss the major environmental effects of an oil spill:

  • Big impact on temporary animal
  • Fish loss of habitat
  • Affects organism functions like respiration, feeding, and thermo-regulation
  • The cleaning of oil spills ends up damaging the remaining plants.
  • Bleaching of coral reefs
  • Depletes oxygen content in water
  • Failure in the reproductive system of sea animals (as seen in dolphins above)

Responsible Bodies

The MARPOL convention of 1973 covers pollution of the marine environment by ships, it also lists forms of marine pollution caused by harmful substances, oil, sewage, and garbage from ships. The key international bodies that take care of oil spills are International Oil Pollution Compensation Fund (IOPC), and United Nations Environment Program World Conservation Monitoring Center (UNEP-WCMC). Other than these, every country has its government agency to take care of the spills. India has a National Oil Spill Disaster Contingency Plan (NOS-DCP).

Conclusion

With all the use of natural resources, the environment is being affected but adding to that is the leaks of these natural resources which further destroys the environment. The first step for acting on anything is to get to know about the history of incidents and the effect that has had on the environment.

References

THE World under the OCEAN

Hellooo guys!!!

Today I am writing about a very interesting topic

We the humans are creatures of land, but there is totally a different world under the ocean.

Its as if the colours in the whole world can be seen under the ocean not only colours the different

aquatic beings are of different kind, they have their own designs patterns.

Its like a whole new ecosystem out there.

once you dive into this beautiful and colourful world under the ocean you can see a whole new unique world.

yes guys I am emphasising on the word “world” cause they have their own environment, their own living beings

I would like to tell you all about some of the intEresting facts and terminoligies i have heard about.

  • 1.CLOWN FISHES :- I am sure you all know about the famous fish nemo but do you guys know that its real name is clown fish. These kind of fishes are found in warm waters such as Red sea, pacific ocean. They are found in shallow waters.

Photo by Tom Fisk on Pexels.com
  • 2. TREASURES: I don’t know if the pirates really hunt for treasures or not but deep under the ocean the treasures really exist. you may get the doubt about how the treasures are under the sea these are caused to the shipwrecks.
  • Before you go on a journey to find the treasures please do not forget the treasure maps.
Photo by Suzy Hazelwood on Pexels.com
  • 3.Whale falls: THE WHALES live under the ocean but do you guys know there is term associated with the whales that is the whale falls
  • A whale fall occurs when the carcass of a whale has fallen onto the ocean floor at a depth greater than 1,000 m, in the bathyal or abyssal zones. On the sea floor, these carcasses can create complex localized ecosystems that supply sustenance to deep-sea organisms for decades.

  • 4. Blind fishes: The Mexican blind cavefish (Astyanax mexicanus), which no longer has eyes. Now scientists may have solved the riddle of why the fish lost their eyes in the dark.They live deep in the ocean.

  • 5.Volcanic eruptions: we all know about the volcanoes and volcanic eruptions on land , but do you know most of the volcanic eruptions take place under the sea .
  • The active volcanoes are less than dormant volcanoes under the ocean but still they ratio of volcanic eruptions in the ocean is more compared to that on land.
Photo by Clive Kim on Pexels.com
  • 6. As I mentioned earlier I call it as the marine world , They have their own environment, they even have lakes , waterfalls, forests, corals.
  • Even aquatic animals get attracted to them and even sometimes new species form there due to the environment.
Photo by Francesco Ungaro on Pexels.com

The above facts are just a sneak peak into the

” world under the OCEAN”

Thankyou^^