Sea water pollution. Oil and oil products

In recent years, the phenomenon of progressive pollution of the waters of the World Ocean has caused considerable excitement. The most important source of pollution is local domestic and industrial waste water, oil and other radioactive materials. Of particular seriousness lies in the pollution of oil and radioactive materials, capturing giant areas of the waters of the oceans.

Local pollution of the seas by everyday and industrial effluents. The desire of people to develop the sea coasts has taken place since ancient times and as a result, in our time, about 60% of all large cities with a population of more than a million people in each are concentrated in coastal zones.
For example, on the coasts of the Mediterranean there are states with a population of 250 million people. Every year, companies in coastal cities throw thousands of tons of all kinds of untreated waste into the sea, and untreated sewage water is also dumped here. Huge quantities of caustic substances carry large rivers into the sea. It is not surprising that in 100 milliliters of sea water, which was taken near Marseilles, 900 thousand Escherichia coli, combined with feces, were identified. In Spain, it is illegal to use most of the beaches and coves for swimming.
Every year there is a great growth of coastal cities and, accordingly, the industry in them, the release of industrial and domestic waste into the sea has reached such a size that the sea was unable to process all the garbage. As a result, significant areas of pollution have been created in urban areas. Under the influence of pollution, the poisoning of marine organisms, the impoverishment of the fauna, the decline of the fisheries, the destruction of natural landscapes, recreation areas, resorts and beaches are carried out. This is expressed most powerfully in bays and bays, where there are restrictions on the exchange of water with the open sea.
Most of the cities lying by the sea fight pollution in this way, wastewater is thrown out through special pipelines many kilometers away from the coast and at a considerable depth. Nevertheless, such a measure does not significantly solve the problem, because the total amount of pollutants released into the sea does not decrease from this.
Total pollution of the World Ocean with oil products and substances with a high concentration of radionuclides. The main pollutant of the seas, the importance of which is instantly increasing, is oil. This type of pollutant enters the sea in various ways: when water is released after washing oil tanks, in shipwrecks, accidents in offshore oil fields, while drilling the seabed, and so on.
About the enormous scale of pollution of the World Ocean is judged by such indicators. About 5-10 million tons of oil is discharged into the waters of the World Ocean per year. A few kilometers from Santa Barbara in the United States, when the seabed was being drilled (1969), an accident occurred, as a result of which the well began to throw into the water about 100 thousand liters of oil per day. A few days later, thousands of km² were shrouded in oil. Similar accidents are common; they happen in different parts of the oceans almost systematically, visibly increasing the pollution of the oceans.
Pollution of the seas and oceans causes great harm. Oil kills most aquatic animals. Quite often the fish remaining alive cannot be consumed due to the harsh oily aroma and ugly taste. Oil kills millions of seabirds every year; their number only off the coast of Great Britain reaches 250 thousand. The incident is familiar when 30 thousand ducks died as a result of oil pollution near the coast of Sweden. There is even a film of oil in Antarctic waters, where seals and penguins die because of it.
"Floating islands" made of oil travel along ocean and sea currents or reach the shores. Oil makes beach areas unusable, turns the coasts of many states into deserts. Many areas of the western coast of England have become similar, where the Gulf Stream brings oil from the Atlantic. Oil ruined many European resort areas.
In order to avoid the growing level of pollution of the waters of the World Ocean, the Intergovernmental Marine Consultative Society for Maritime Navigation (IMCO) developed an International Agreement to Avoid Further Oil Pollution of the Sea, which was signed by the main maritime states, including Russia. According to the agreement, in particular, all maritime zones within 50 kilometers from the coast are restricted areas where it is prohibited to dump oil into the water.
Nevertheless, there are many unresolved problems in the marine water protection zone, which mainly relate to the neutralization of coastal wastewater and the further equipping of ships with mechanisms and systems for collecting waste (oil residues, garbage, and others) and delivering them to floating and coastal facilities for cleaning, recycling and destruction. .
High severity is the pollution of the oceans with active substances. Experience has shown that as a result of the US-made hydrogen bomb explosion in the Pacific Ocean (1954), a zone of 25,600 sq. km. possessed lethal radiation. Within six months, the scale of infection reached 2.5 million km2, this was facilitated by the current.
Before contamination with radioactive substances, flora and fauna are defenseless. They have a biological accumulation of these substances in their organisms, transmitted to each other through food chains. Infected small organisms are engulfed by larger organisms, as a result of which harmful accumulations are created in large organisms. The radioactivity of individual planktonic organisms can be 1000 times higher than the radioactivity of water, and individual fish, which are one of the highest links in the food chain, even 50 thousand times.
Animals keep infection for a long time, as a result, plankton can be infected in clean water. Radioactive fish swim extremely far from the point of infection.
Signed in 1963, the Moscow Treaty on the ban on testing of nuclear weapons in the atmosphere, space and under water interrupted the progressive mass radioactive contamination of the oceans. For all that, the sources of this pollution have survived in the form of enterprises for the purification of uranium ore and the conversion of nuclear fuel, nuclear power plants, and reactors. An important issue is the method of disposal of radioactive waste. It was revealed that sea water can corrode containers, their harmful composition spreads in water. We need special scientific research on the neutralization of radioactive contamination in water.

In childhood ocean I associate with something mighty and great. Three years ago I visited the island and saw the ocean with my own eyes. He attracted my gaze with his strength and immense beauty, which cannot be measured by the human eye. But not everything is as beautiful as it seems at first glance. There are quite a lot of global problems in the world, one of which is ecological problem, more precisely, ocean pollution.

Major ocean pollutants in the world

The main problem is the chemicals that are thrown away by various enterprises. The main contaminants are:

Oil.
Petrol.
Pesticides, fertilizers and nitrates.
Mercury and other harmful chemicals .

Oil is the biggest scourge for the ocean.

As we saw, the first on the list is oil, and this is no coincidence. Oil and petroleum products are the most common pollutants in the oceans. Already at the start 80syears thrown into the ocean every year 15.5 million tons of oil, and this 0.22% of global production. Oil and oil products, gasoline as well as pesticides, fertilizers and nitrates, even mercury and other harmful chemical compounds - all of them during emissions from enterprises enter the oceans. All of the above leads the ocean to the fact that pollution forms its fields to the maximum intensively, and especially in areas of oil production.

Pollution of the World Ocean - what it can lead to

The most important thing to understand is that hocean pollution is an action that is directly related to a person. Accumulated perennial chemicals and toxins are already affecting the development of pollutants in the ocean, and these in turn have a negative impact on marine organisms and the human body. The consequences to which the actions and inaction of people lead are horrendous. Destruction of many species of fish as well as other inhabitants of the ocean waters- this is not all that we get because of the indifferent attitude of man to the Ocean. We should think that the loss can be much, much more than we might think. Do not forget that the oceans have a very important role, he has planetary functions, the ocean is powerful thermal regulator and moisture circulation Earth and the circulation of its atmosphere. Pollution can lead to an irreparable change in all these characteristics. The worst thing that such changes are already observed today. A person can do a lot, he can both save nature and destroy it. We should think about how humanity has already harmed nature, we must understand that much is already irreparable. Every day we become colder and more callous to our home, to our Earth. But we and our descendants still live on it. Therefore we must cherish World Ocean!

Plan

1. Characteristics and sources of pollution

2. Environmental problems caused by pollution

3. Pollution control methods

4. Applications

5. List of used literature

Characteristics and sources of pollution

Any body of water or water source is associated with its external environment. It is influenced by the conditions for the formation of surface or underground water runoff, various natural phenomena, industry, industrial and municipal construction, transport, economic and domestic human activities. The consequence of these influences is the introduction of new, unusual substances into the aquatic environment - pollutants that degrade water quality. Pollution entering the aquatic environment is classified in different ways, depending on the approaches, criteria and tasks. So, usually allocate chemical, physical and biological pollution.

Chemical pollution is a change in the natural chemical properties of water due to an increase in the content of harmful impurities in it, both inorganic (mineral salts, acids, alkalis, clay particles) and organic nature (oil and oil products, organic residues, surfactants, pesticides) .

The main inorganic (mineral) pollutants of sea waters are various chemical compounds that are toxic to the inhabitants of the aquatic environment. These are compounds of arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury, chromium, copper, fluorine. Most of them end up in water as a result of human activities. Heavy metals are absorbed by phytoplankton and then transferred through the food chain to more highly organized organisms. The toxic effect of some of the most common pollutants in the hydrosphere is presented in Appendix 1.

In addition to the substances listed in the table, inorganic acids and bases that change the acidity of water can be classified as dangerous sources of infection in the aquatic environment.

Among the main sources of pollution of the seas with minerals and biogenic elements, food industry enterprises and agriculture should be mentioned.

Among the soluble substances introduced into the seas from the land, not only mineral, biogenic elements, but also organic residues are of great importance for the inhabitants of the aquatic environment. The removal of organic matter into the ocean is estimated at 300 - 380 million tons / year. Wastewater containing suspensions of organic origin or dissolved organic matter adversely affects the condition of water bodies. When settling, the suspensions flood the bottom and delay the development or completely stop the vital activity of these microorganisms involved in the process of water self-purification. When these sediments rot, harmful compounds and toxic substances, such as hydrogen sulfide, can be formed, which lead to complete pollution of the water in the river. The presence of suspensions also makes it difficult for light to penetrate to a depth, and slows down the processes of photosynthesis.

One of the main sanitary requirements for water quality is the content of the required amount of oxygen in it. Harmful effects have all the pollution, which, one way or another, contribute to the reduction of oxygen in the water. Surfactants - fats, oils, lubricants - form a film on the surface of the water, which prevents gas exchange between water and the atmosphere, which reduces the degree of saturation of water with oxygen.

A significant amount of organic matter, most of which is not characteristic of natural waters, is discharged into rivers along with industrial and domestic wastewater. Increasing pollution of water bodies and drains is observed in all industrial countries. Information on the content of some organic substances in industrial wastewater is provided in Annex 2.

Due to the rapid pace of urbanization and the somewhat slow construction of sewage treatment plants or their unsatisfactory operation, water basins and soil are polluted with household waste. Pollution is especially noticeable in slow-flowing or stagnant water bodies (reservoirs, lakes).

Decomposing in the aquatic environment, organic waste can become a medium for pathogenic organisms. Water contaminated with organic waste becomes almost unsuitable for drinking and other purposes. Household waste is dangerous not only because it is a source of some human diseases (typhoid fever, dysentery, cholera), but also because it requires a lot of oxygen for its decomposition. If domestic wastewater enters the reservoir in very large quantities, then the content of soluble oxygen may fall below the level necessary for the life of marine and freshwater organisms.

1) Oil and oil products - oil is a viscous oily liquid that has a dark brown color. The main components of oil are hydrocarbons (up to 98%).

Oil and oil products are the most common pollutants. By the beginning of the 1980s, about 6 million tons of oil were annually entering the ocean, which accounted for 0.23% of world production.

The greatest losses of oil are associated with its transportation from production areas. Emergencies, discharge of washing and ballast water overboard by tankers - all this leads to the presence of permanent pollution fields along sea routes. Large masses of oil enter the seas along rivers, with domestic and storm drains.

Getting into the marine environment, oil first spreads in the form of a film, forming layers of various thicknesses. By the color of the film, you can determine its thickness (see Appendix 3).

The oil film changes the composition of the spectrum and the intensity of light penetration into the water.

2) Pesticides Pesticides are a group of artificially created substances used to control pests and plant diseases. Pesticides are divided into the following groups: insecticides - to combat harmful insects, fungicides and bactericides - to combat bacterial plant diseases, herbicides - against weeds.

It has been established that pesticides, destroying pests, harm many beneficial organisms and undermine the health of biocenoses. In agriculture, there has long been a problem of transition from chemical (polluting) to biological (environmentally friendly) methods of pest control.

The industrial production of pesticides is accompanied by the appearance of a large number of by-products that pollute wastewater. In the aquatic environment, representatives of insecticides, fungicides and herbicides are more common than others.

3) Synthetic surfactants (surfactants)- belong to an extensive group of substances that lower the surface tension of water. They are part of synthetic detergents (SMC), widely used in everyday life and industry. Together with wastewater, surfactants enter the continental waters and the marine environment.

The presence of surfactants in industrial wastewater is associated with their use in such processes as the separation of chemical technology products, the production of polymers, the improvement of conditions for drilling oil and gas wells, and the fight against equipment corrosion. In agriculture, surfactants are used as part of pesticides.

4) Compounds with carcinogenic properties. Carcinogenic substances are chemical compounds that disrupt developmental processes and can cause mutations.

Substances with carcinogenic properties include chlorinated aliphatic hydrocarbons, vinyl chloride, and especially polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). The maximum amount of PAHs in present-day sediments of the World Ocean (more than 100 μg/km of dry matter mass) was found in tentonically active zones.

5) Heavy metals. Heavy metals (mercury, lead, cadmium, zinc, copper, arsenic) are common and highly toxic pollutants. They are widely used in various industrial productions, therefore, despite the treatment measures, the content of heavy metal compounds in industrial wastewater is quite high. Large masses of these compounds enter the seas through the atmosphere. The most dangerous are mercury, lead and cadmium.

Contamination of seafood has repeatedly led to mercury poisoning of the coastal population. By 1977, there were 2,800 victims of the Minomata disease, which was caused by industrial waste. Insufficiently treated wastewater from enterprises entered Minomata Bay.

Lead is a typical trace element found in all components of the environment: in rocks, soil, natural waters, the atmosphere, and living organisms. Finally, lead is actively dissipated into the environment during human activities.

6) Discharge of waste into the sea for the purpose of disposal (dumping). Many countries with access to the sea carry out marine burial of various materials and substances, in particular soil excavated during dredging, drill slag, industrial waste, construction waste, solid waste, explosives and chemicals, and radioactive waste. The volume of burials amounted to about 10% of the total mass of pollutants entering the World Ocean.

The basis for dumping in the sea is the ability of the marine environment to process a large amount of organic and inorganic substances without much damage to the water. However, this ability is not unlimited.

Therefore, dumping is considered as a forced measure, a temporary tribute to the imperfection of technology by society. Slags of industrial production contain a variety of organic substances and compounds of heavy metals.

During the discharge and passage of the material through the water column, some of the pollutants enter the solution, changing the quality of the water, while the other is sorbed by suspended particles and passes into bottom sediments.

With the development of production forces in the basin of Lake Baikal, the anthropogenic impact on the natural environment has noticeably increased. New sources of pollution have emerged. Over 700 million cubic meters of sewage were dumped into Baikal annually. In the Selenga River, which flows into Baikal, almost a kilometer below the discharge of sewage from the Selenga Pulp and Cardboard Plant, the concentration of pollutants significantly exceeds the maximum allowable standards. According to experts, the bulk of all mineral, organic and suspended matter enters the lake with Selenga runoff, and the rest from other tributaries (about 500 rivers). Until now, despite all the measures taken, expressed in the closure of a number of pulp mills on the shore of the lake and the installation of treatment facilities for the remaining ones, the situation has not changed for the better. Lake pollution is in full swing. There are fewer and fewer fish in Lake Baikal. Compare for yourself, 250 tons were handed over in 1960 and 120 in 1990. This happens with many lakes in Russia.

Nothing is protected from pollution and seas, which have long served as a dumping ground for various sewage. The seas and oceans are polluted with substances harmful to their life, such as oil, heavy metals, pesticides, and radioisotopes. Pollution occurs as a result of the discharge into rivers and then into the ocean of wastewater from various enterprises. How many fields and forests are treated with pesticides and oil losses during its transportation by tankers?

Gaseous toxic substances, such as carbon monoxide, sulfur oxide, enter sea waters through the atmosphere. It is estimated that 50,000 tons of lead enter the seas and oceans with rain. Near the coastline and in the area of large cities, pathogenic microflora is often found in sea water. The degree of pollution of sea water is increasing more and more. Often the ability of the seas and oceans to self-purify is no longer sufficient. Basically, pollution fields are formed in the coastal waters of large industrial centers and narrow rivers, as well as in areas of intensive navigation and oil production. Pollution is very quickly spread by currents and has a harmful effect on areas richest in animals and vegetation. They cause serious damage to the state of marine ecosystems.

Oil and oil products. Mercury and pesticides

Oil and petroleum products are among the most harmful chemicals. In connection with the growth of production, transportation, processing and consumption of oil, the scale of environmental pollution is expanding. Birds are the first victims of marine pollution by oil products. Their plumage, when they sit on the surface of the water, covered with a film of oil, lose their thermal insulation properties. Soon the bird dies as a result of hemorrhage and disorders caused by a violation of thermoregulation. But not only birds suffer from the action of oil products, since the film of oil prevents the saturation of water with oxygen, the vital activity of organisms, in particular plankton, ceases. In addition, some components of the oil act as real poisons on marine invertebrates, especially on crustaceans and even on fish.

A serious threat to humans is edible shellfish, which concentrate some of the carcinogenic components of petroleum products. So, benzopyrene was found in the shells of cockles, oysters and mussels. Waste oil, carried by the currents, is nailed to the shores and the coastal zone. These accumulations have a great impact on the organisms of coastal animals and are very unpleasant for people visiting the beaches.

The soluble components of oil are highly toxic. Their presence in sea water leads to the death of their inhabitants. They negatively affect the palatability of marine animals. If fertilized fish eggs are placed in an aquarium with a very low concentration of oil products, then most of the embryos die. And many of the survivors are freaks. The negative effect of oil on living organisms is expressed in disruption of the enzymatic apparatus, the nervous system, and in pathological changes in tissues and organs. For marine life, oil is a kind of drug. It has been noticed that some fish, having "sipped" oil once, no longer tend to leave the poisoned zone. Oil pollution is a formidable factor affecting the life of the entire world's oceans.

Every day, up to 5,000 tons of mercury enters the ocean from the earth, which is used in agriculture and industry. Mercury pollution significantly reduces the primary productivity of marine waters. In the areas of highest concentration, there is a decrease in the number of the smallest green algae that synthesize organic substances and release oxygen. Heavy metals are absorbed by phytoplankton, and then, along the food chain, they are transferred to highly organized organisms. As a result, dangerous concentrations of metals can accumulate in fish and marine mammals.

World production of pesticides reaches a large scale. The relative chemical stability of many of these compounds, as well as the nature of distribution, contributed to their entry into the seas and oceans. The constant accumulation of organochlorine substances in water poses a serious threat to human life.

Seas and oceans, through rivers directly from land, from ships and barges are dumped liquid and solid waste. Some of these pollutants settle in the coastal zone, and some, under the influence of sea currents, disperse in different directions. In the surface layer of the sea, bacteria develop in huge quantities, and not only useful ones, which play a big role in the life of the sea. Recently, near large cities, pathogenic species of bacteria that cause gastrointestinal diseases are increasingly appearing. This is a consequence of the release of domestic wastewater into the sea without prior biological treatment.

Pollution of the seas and oceans

Man in his economic activity has long been drawn to the coastal regions of the oceans and seas. And as a result - the settlement of sea coasts. Currently, 60% of all large cities with a population of over a million people are located in coastal zones. In the once remote region of the Earth - on the shores of the Persian Gulf - 150 industrial complexes have appeared in recent years, including 60 oil refineries, as well as steel, cement, and chemical enterprises. The degree of urbanization increases there annually by 6-10%, and the population - by 0.5 million people.

According to statistics, the number of people living on the sea coasts in cities with a million inhabitants, by the beginning of the 21st century, will double. It is assumed that even then 90% of all domestic wastewater and a large volume of industrial wastewater, as now, without prior treatment will be discharged into the oceans.

On the shores of the Mediterranean Sea there are countries with a population of 250 million people. Every year, industrial enterprises of coastal cities throw thousands of tons of various untreated waste into the sea, and untreated sewage water is also discharged here. Huge masses of toxic substances are carried into the sea by large rivers.

Millions of tourists flock to the Mediterranean, hoping to "find the sun, sandy beaches and turquoise water there." There is indeed a lot of sun there, but along with it, hepatitis and fungal diseases can easily be acquired on the beach and in the water.

It is not surprising that, on the recommendation of the Spanish public health authorities, the governor of the tourist center of Alicante banned the use of 20 beaches and bays for swimming. Near Marseilles, where tourists used to swim in the sea after visiting the castle of Yves, scientists found about 900 thousand Escherichia coli, originating from feces, only in 100 ml of sea water. This is the highest concentration of such bacteria in the Mediterranean.

In Italy, carabinieri and firefighters make sure that no one swims on the beaches closed by the authorities. This is especially true in Naples, where in 1973 the consumption of contaminated shellfish caused a cholera epidemic that killed 22 people. Even sunbathing is allowed there only at a respectful distance from the coast.

More than 100 of the 120 major Mediterranean seaside cities discharge their sewage untreated. But even when there is no smell from the water and no dirt is visible in it, there are reasons for alarm. Blue Mediterranean water in many places is transparent to the very bottom, but there is no life in it: poisonous industrial waste has poisoned it.

The natural process of water renewal in the Mediterranean Sea is hindered by an increase in oil content, which reduces surface evaporation. In 1979, 1 m 2 of the surface of the Mediterranean Sea contained 108 mg of oil. This is much higher than in such an area of intensive navigation as the North Atlantic, where 17.5 mg of oil fall on 1 m 2 of the surface.

With the advent of supertankers, not only indisputable achievements of scientific and technical thought are associated. They have become one of the worst contributors to environmental pollution. In pursuit of the fabulous profits that the operation of large oil tankers promises, the owners of giant tankers neglect elementary safety standards and rules. As a result of the criminal negligence of shipping companies, supertankers are often shipwrecked. In recent years, the consequences of such disasters have been felt by people in many parts of the world. However, effective measures to prevent such disasters have not yet been taken.

Every year, 3% of the oil from the crashed tankers enters the Mediterranean Sea. However, 10 times more oil is dumped into the sea during their washing. In the bay of the Italian port of Trieste, the area of which was once famous for fish and shellfish, oil destroyed all flora and fauna.

An even greater danger to the inhabitants of the seas is industrial waste, primarily mercury and other heavy metals. These wastes remain in the water for a long time or are concentrated in animal tissues. It should be noted that 85% of all sewage enters the Mediterranean Sea from the continents, and most of them come from industrial centers and cities remote from the sea, primarily from such industrial countries as Spain, France, Italy. The vast majority of pollutants are brought into the Mediterranean by the rivers Rhone, Po and Ebro.

Almost all industries on the Spanish Mediterranean coast operate with poorly functioning sewage treatment plants or none at all. On the Adriatic coast, 35,000 Italian industrial enterprises are poisoning the sea. Only one lagoon in Venice, which measures 500 km 2 , receives untreated discharge from 76 plants.

The Sea of Marmara is heavily polluted. Every year, tankers, together with ballast water, dump more than 4 million tons of oil into it. Waste from industrial enterprises, mountains of garbage on the once magnificent beaches, and sewage drains have led to the fact that a rare daredevil dares to swim here.

The Inland Sea of Japan has long played an important role in the life of the people of the Land of the Rising Sun. It not only serves as an important source of food for a significant part of the population, but is also the main transport artery connecting large industrial centers located on its banks, which provide almost 30% of the country's national income. Nine prefectures of this region annually produce 52.4 million tons of steel, 1.8 million tons of ethylene, more than 4.5 million tons of paper. About 1,870,000 barrels of oil are processed daily.

But prosperity also has a downside. The uncontrolled management of the monopolies, striving for profit at any cost, has led to severe environmental pollution in this area. Underestimation of the consequences of violation of ecological processes led in the 50s to human casualties. Mercury poisoning has killed dozens of people in Minamata, a fishing village in southern Kyushu. By 1970, environmental contamination had reached tragic proportions in Japan, endangering human life.

The International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution of the Seas by Discharges of Waste, adopted at the end of 1972, specifies, in particular, the most harmful products of chemical pollution. This, as already noted, is oil and oil products, organochlorine pesticides, some heavy metals (mercury, cadmium, lead).

The amount of oil entering the World Ocean per year, according to various sources, is 5-10 million tons. According to the UN, in 1967 the volume of world oil production was 1.85 billion tons, in 1970 - 2.2 billion tons In 1979, the world production of oil and gas condensate amounted to 3.2 billion tons. Undoubtedly, with the growth of oil production, pollution of the oceans will increase. It can be assumed that the extent of pollution will increase due to the rapid deployment of oil production on the continental shelf. In 1970, one-sixth of the total volume of oil was produced in such fields; subsequently, oil production in these areas increased continuously.

In 1979, the Caribbean became the scene of the largest environmental disaster in the history of oil exploration. An accident on a drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico owned by the Mexican state company Pemex leaked oil into the sea for several months. The "black surf" inevitably moved to the northeast, covering over 200 km of the beaches of the American state of Texas with a layer of oil.

In 1978, the coast of Brittany (France), for the fourth time in the last ten years, became the scene of a maritime disaster - a giant supertanker Amoco Cadiz crashed on the coastal reefs. The 230,000 tons of crude oil that was in his tanks spilled in a giant slick for 200 km along the coast of one of the most picturesque regions of France. For many months and even years, fish and shellfish trades on tens of kilometers of the Breton coast turned out to be ruined; marine life in the area suffered incalculable damage.

Oil spilled into the sea spreads on the surface of the water, forming a thin film that interrupts the exchange of water with atmospheric gases and thereby disrupts the life of marine plankton, which creates oxygen and the primary production of organic matter in the ocean.

Oil pollution of the seas adversely affects living organisms. Petroleum products undergo natural oxidation very slowly, and therefore their quantity increases from year to year. In the conditions of the Arctic seas, oil can be stored for up to 50 years. The complete oxidation of 1 liter of oil under average climatic conditions requires a supply of oxygen dissolved in 400 thousand liters of sea water. The loss of this amount of oxygen adversely affects the lives of many marine organisms.

Oil products pollute not only the surface of the water, but also spread throughout the thickness, settle together with silt to the bottom and are capable of secondary water pollution. Light fractions of oil are in the form of a film on the surface and in the form of an aqueous solution in the water column, while the heavy fractions settle to the bottom of the sea. Thus, oil poses a danger to living organisms living on the surface, in the water column and at the bottom.

It has been established that the content of oil products in water over 16 mg/l causes the death of fish and disrupts the normal development of eggs. It has been observed that cases of catastrophic oil spills at sea lead to the destruction of many seabirds. Oil penetrates into the plumage and changes the structure of the feather, impairing buoyancy and heat-insulating properties. When birds begin to clean themselves with their beaks, oil and fuel oil penetrate into the body. This leads to complete poisoning of the body. In addition, food resources are destroyed in the oil spill area. This forces the surviving birds to leave the oiled area. Spilled oil also poses a danger to large marine animals - whales, seals and dolphins. The oil film adheres to the surface of the animal's body. In seals, the fur loses its insulating properties and causes inflammation of the eyes, which ends in blindness.

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