Oil spills are very serious disasters as they wipe out everything in their path, and discolour the sea. All of the dead wildlife such as plankton will have consequences for organisms higher up the food chain which in the plankton’s case young Cod.
The oil transported by ships is hazardous and if the ships sink or the oil spills out of them, the overall effect can result in severe damage to the marine environment. There are also long-term effects, such as a small presence of oil in the water, which can still be identified about 15 years after the event. The risk of a major oil spills remains, as many tankers that routinely cross the North Sea are still single-hulled, have technical problems or have crews on board that have not been trained or don’t have much experience.
Significant oil pollution is caused by tankers illegally cleaning their tanks while out at sea and dumping the water used to clean overboard.
Roughly 74% of pollution caused by shipping is illegal. Only 26% is caused by tanker accidents. Over 100,000 tonnes of oil is dumped in the North Sea by ships.
Some manufacturing plants that are based near the North Sea pollute the atmosphere with fumes that arise from large towers.
The gas emitted from the factories becomes dense and changes form from to a liquid and goes into the sea. This pollutes the atmosphere and the sea. The toxic fumes contain harmful chemicals
which have a pH numbers of 1 and 16.
Radioactive waste is stored in water ponds next to nuclear power stations until it is considered safe enough for disposal. The waste is then released directly into the sea about 2km from the coast.
The ocean bed is used for the dumping of high level nuclear waste. The liquid waste is sealed into glass, a process called vitrification, and stored in steel canisters containing concrete. These containers are dumped in the sediment on the ocean floor.
In December 1983 large amounts of highly contaminated seaweed were washed up on the beaches near Sellafield and many kilometres of beach were officially closed to the public. The BNFL were prosecuted for allowing excessive radioactive leaks from the pipelines in which radio active material was transferred.
At the end of the Second World War, up to 200,000 tonnes of chemical weapons were dumped in the seas around the world. Britain dumped in the Baltic and the North Sea.
Chemicals involved were nerve agents, mustard gas, and blistering agents. Some were tossed overboard, others packed into ships which were then scuttled or destroyed with dynamite or C4.
This is not the case for mustard gas. In the case of agents which contained Arsenic, even if they break down, an environmental problem persists. Arsenic is a deadly metal that kills if inhaled.
The graph shows the Number of oil slicks per flight hour, the Baltic Sea has much more oil Slicks than the North Sea.
In the future, the EU could clarify a ban on all dumping in any sea or rivers within Europe. Also, tankers should be smaller. This will cause spillages to be smaller and less effective on the environment.
Give more Money to the farmers, so that they can Farm Organic foods, instead of using Pesticides and fertilizers for normal food. This will cause less empty containers, to be dumped into the sea.
Europe should call a meeting with all of the countries to stop pollution in the North Sea all the countries invited should own a sector of the north sea OR own a river that leads to the north sea. The meeting will decide on what Laws to impose on pollution of the North Sea.
The North Sea is the cesspit of Europe. The EU should do something constructive about the issue. They should ban all of the polluting in the river, by putting security cameras in the ports where the ships dock, and check the contents of any ship that leaves the port and comes into the port.
However finding a conclusion is very difficult as some of the countries still believe that pumping waste far out to sea, it will disperse and cause no harm. These countries will not choose to believe any other sensible conclusion. The EU needs to work together and decide on one conclusion that all of the countries believe that is the right one.
I think that my enquiry is effective as the issue on the North Sea is a major problem and it needs to be repaired as well as prevented, from getting worse. Some thing must be done about the situation. This may involve making changes in everyday life, for members of the public.
My enquiry is not effective in the way that, the EU does not have sufficient funds to invest in this project, of cleaning out the cesspit of Europe.
