ADDRESSING MARINE POLLUTION FROM

SHIPPINGShip Repair And

Maintenance VS Marine Pollution

ADDRESSING MARINE POLLUTION FROM

SHIPPING

Oceans make up 71% of Earth’s surface, and it is also where life is said to have begun.

We have always linked water to life; great, ancient human civilizations in Egypt, Mesopotamia and China rose alongside rivers like the Nile, Euphrates and Yangtze, for example, and in more fundamental ways, we even track evidence of water on planets like Mars as an indicator that it must have once housed living organisms.

The human body itself is composed of up to 60% water and certain vital parts, like our brain, heart, lungs, skin, muscles and kidneys are composed of even more.

In short – water creates life, water sustains life, and we ourselves as part-water. In a quote from President John F. Kennedy from 1962 that still resonates today: “…when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch it, we are going back from whence we came.”

Unfortunately, the levels of pollution in, and abuse of our marine environment does not appear to reflect that vital importance and intimate connection – a carelessness that ultimately endangers us, too.

The world’s waters are under threat from several fronts, as identified by the World Wildlife Fund: unsustainable fishing practices that exploit and deplete valuable fish stocks; inadequate Marine Protected Areas; invasive housing and tourism developments on the coastline; heavy shipping traffic; oil and gas exploration, drilling and transport; pollution; aquaculture; and climate change. Kemplon Engineering takes a closer look at a threat of particular relevance to the maritime industry, Shipping. In short – water creates life, water sustains life, and we ourselves as part-water. In a quote from President John F. Kennedy from 1962 that still resonates today: “…when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch it, we are going back from whence we came.”

Unfortunately, the levels of pollution in, and abuse of our marine environment does not appear to reflect that vital importance and intimate connection – a carelessness that ultimately endangers us, too.

Shipping is absolutely indispensable to the global economy, accounting for about 90% of world trade. It is considered the most carbon efficient and least environmentally detrimental means of commercial transport (vs. road and air), and has even seen considerable reductions in pollution over recent years in spite of increases in trade. Still, with about 50,000 merchant ships plying international trade routes with all sorts of cargo, its environmental impact is far from negligible. Shipping contributes about 3% of the world’s total CO2 emissions, for one, which inextricably plays a role in climate change.

On a lighter note, the industry is highly engaged in making reductions, via international and legally-binding standards on emissions regulations, and in making vessels more efficient by moving more items while using less petroleum-based fuels.

Aside from the dangers presented by air emissions, oil and other pollutants can also damage marine environments. While it must be noted that 80% of marine pollution comes from land via human activities such as manufacturing, farming and waste disposal, and that the most common pollutant element in the ocean is actually plastic, the 46% of oil making its way into the oceans annually via marine transportation is sizeable too. Oil pollution from marine transport can be from accidents or deliberate actions like dumping bilge oil.

Of the oil entering the marine environment annually, 12% is credited to oil spills and 10% is attributed to dumped bilge oil. Even if the quantity of oil from shipping may be comparatively “small” to what land activities bring in, one must also take into account the particularly damaging properties of this pollutant. Oil is, after all, said to be “the fastest source of deterioration to the ocean”. Oil has both direct effects leading to marine life death by suffocation, and may indirectly impact surviving marine life by changing animal behaviors and altering coast or ocean habitats.

Thankfully, oil spills from ships have generally shown a downward trend; of Quantity of Spilled Oil (for large spills of > 700 tonnes), the years 2010-2014 had 1.8 spills per year on average, versus 3.4 spills per year on average in 2000-2009, or even 24.5 spills per year on average in 1970-1979.

Aside from oil spills, there is also seemingly negligible pollution from normal operations, such as oil release via leakage, maintenance and mishandling, the use of chemicals in cleaning, fire extinguishers, water treatment, refrigeration, anti-fouling chemicals added to paints that keep hulls free of algae and barnacles, and the discharge of “black water (sewage)” and runoff from showers and wash basins on ships. The effects of these practices can still be cumulatively damaging.

Shipping can also bring in Invasive Species to new locales, altering the delicate ecosystems they are released into. One of the ways this happens is through ballast water. Ships use water for stability – loaded when cargo is low, released when cargo is picked up. Estimates peg 10 billion tons of ballast water going around annually; and with the water comes living marine species that can thrive and even dominate in new environments, threatening local marine life and ecological balance.

Though these operational discharges are damaging, the community is working on regulating them too, through international, national and local restrictions and protocols as outlined by instruments like The International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (“MARPOL”), the International Convention on Oil Pollution, Preparedness, Response, and Cooperation (“OPRC”), and the International Convention for the Control of Harmful Anti-fouling Systems on Ships (the “AFS Treaty”).

The problems are vast, and we are all called in ways both big and small to do our part. It is good to see that the maritime community is not complacent in addressing their contribution to this environmental issue. For us at Kemplon Engineering, environmental preservation is intimately tied with providing engineering services that help our marine and industrial clients keep their assets in tip-top-shape, toward preventing accidents and minimizing spills, discharges and other environmental contamination.

We have been providing a wide range of engineering services – on time and on budget – since 2005. If you have an engineering project in mind, explore our website and see what Kemplon Engineering can do for you. From welding and fabrication, precision machining, pipe fitting, laser cutting, and more, we just might have the solutions you need for your projects or ideas. Contact us for queries and quotes at info@kemplon.com, or by phone at (877) 522-6526.

Related Articles:Causes & Remedies of Onboard AccidentsMaritime Disputes in Asia: Flashpoint for Regional Conflict?Panama Canal Updates: Good News, Bad News

Image Credits:http://i.bnet.com/blogs/bp-photoskimmers_at_work.jpghttp://oceanservice.noaa.gov/news/june14/our-ocean.jpghttp://sailorsforthesea.org/sites/default/files/top-10-items-found.jpghttp://www.4thmedia.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/4706_4422.jpghttps://xeneta.com/dynamic/upload/bilder/blogg/Container-Shipping-By-the-Numbers.pnghttp://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/dgasperik/Ocean%20Conservancy%20Top%20Ten%20Debris%20Graphic.jpghttp://www.northseaballast.eu/downloadimage/2145/1968_3192012_44609_PM_bw%20uitleg.jpg/bw%20uitleg.jpghttp://www.1stwebdesigner.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/infographics-tips/disastrous-oil-spills-design-outstanding-infographics-tips-resources.jpg

Marine Engineerin

g

Kemplon

Kemplon