The decline in the "health" of the Nations' coastal ecosystem could cause long term
damage. If action is not taken for prevention, increasing populations
and chemical deposits are going to continue harming coastal waters
and marine life. Coastal waters and estuaries are some of our most
important areas, providing habitats for over 75% coastal (Coastal
Ecosystem), and 80-90% of the recreational catch of fish, generating
twenty five billion dollars in economic activity(Coastal Ecosystem).
Economic profits rise from a substantial seafood industry, water
transportation industry, recreational swimming, fishing, and beach
attendance involving over one hundred million participants annually.
Although over seventy percent of economically important fisheries in
the United States depends on estuarine habitats during some life
stage, these areas are being destroyed or degraded by coastal
development, bringing with it pollution, erosion, and environmental
threats.
Nature seems to be signaling that the coastal ecosystems are
being pushed beyond their limits through red tides and other
harmful plankton blooms occurring with increasing frequency and
severity. A major cause of these corrosions is toxic chemicals that
contaminate the water regions. Little is known about the ultimate
fates of these harmful chemicals on living resources and other
organisms. Such toxic contaminants may cause undesirable biological
effects to organisms and the environment. These effects may also
pose a problem to human consumers of these resources. This
contamination must be prevented in order to save a potential decline
in the unharmful water supply available for insects, fish, and
humans.
The polluting of our water supplies come from many different
sources: radioactive wastes from reactors, laboratories, and hospitals,
fallout from nuclear explosions, domestic wastes from cities and
towns, and chemical waste from factories, and the loading of
nutrients. Nutrient loading is from land based pollution sources that
can greatly enhance coastal primary productivity, often with
opposing impacts. One common effect of nutrient enrichment is an
increased algal production which often results in the depletion of
oxygen from bottom waters, which can kill some marine
organisms(Nutrient Enhanced Coastal...). Many pestisides and their
harmful effects have little understanding of their interactions and
transformations with the environment. Most of these chemicals that
reach the water systems are used for the control of insects, rodents,
or unwanted vegetation. Some are deliberatly applied to bodies of
water to destroy plants, insect larvae, or undesired fishes. Some
come from forest spraying that may blanket two or three million
acres of a single state with spray directed against a single insect
pest-spray that falls directly into streams or that drips down through
the leafy canopy to the forest floor, there to become part of the slow
movement of seeping moisture begining its long journey to the sea.
An example of this affect is Clear Lake, California(Carson p.47-50).
The Lake was being sprayed with a pesticide (containing the harmful
chemical DDD) to rid the lake of overabundant insects around the
lake. After spraying the pesticide, no trace of DDD could be found in
the water shortly after the last application of the chemical. But the
poison had not really left the lake, it had merely gone into the fabric
of the life it supports. It was a cyclic sequence in which the large
carnivores had eaten the smaller carnivores, that had eaten the
herbivores, that had eaten the plankton, that had absorbed the
poison in the water. This situation brings up the question of, is it
wise or desirable to use substances with such strong effects on the
surrounding ecosystem in such a negative manner.
Another example of coastal ecosystem damage involves
contaminant concentrations in Tampa Bay that are relatively high.
Especially high are the concentrations of lead, mercury, arsenic, zinc,
and chlorinated pesticides, including DDT and chlordane. These
contaminants may be toxic to living natural resources in the Bay and
therefore need an extensive research effort to determine their
distribution, concentration, and effects. Oyster samples collected
from the area extending from Appalachicola Bay to Pensacola Bay,
have had very high concentrations of pesticides, aromatic
hydrocarbons, and many trace metals. These concentrations of some
chemicals have been the highest observed nationwide in several
years. This gives an idea of how much worse the destruction of the
coastal waters are becoming and the chemicals that may be
potentially harmful to all life forms that may come into contact with
them. These are only a few examples of the areas of water affected
by the toxins and chemicals that have proved harmful to the
ecosystem.
There are many different solutions that can be assigned to the
different cases of polluted coastal ecosystems. On a government
level, the federal and state agencies need to focus on providing for
the existing protection and restoration of coastal resources. This
would help to prevent destruction before the problem becomes too
serious. A program to monitor the coastal ecosystems' health to
detect unacceptable changes and direct appropriate management
actions would place a source to the pollutants. By developing
research to provide information needed to understand and predict
ecosystem functions you can develop means for ecological resources,
understand the causes and significance of ecosystem changes. Most
importantly is to develop a public awareness and understanding of
the value of the coastal ecosystems, and the benefit to maintain the
region as healthily as possible, so as to provide long term
productivity.
Works Cited
Carson, Rachel. Silent Spring. New York, Houghton Mifflin Co.,
1987.
"Coastal Change Analysis Program". World Wide Web
http://hpcc.noaa.gov/cop/ccap.html
"Coastal Ecosystems Health". World Wide Web
http://www.noaa.gov/cgi
"Florida Bay Research Program". World Wide Web
http:// hpcc.noaa.gov/cop/florida.html
"Nutrient Enhanced Productivity". World Wide Web
http://hpcc.noaa.gov/cop/nutrient.html
"Toxic Chamicals Contaminants". World Wide Web
http://hpcc.noaa.gov/cop/toxics.html
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