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. The health of marine and estuarine ecosystems is inextricably linked to the catchments with which they interact. 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. "Economists have estimated the value of goods and services provided by the ocean in regulating atmospheric gases, nutrient cycling, biological control, food production, raw materials and recreation at US$21 500 billion annually"

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.