Mr. Kehinde Akinsanya is a UK based Health, Safety and Environment expert; recently, he took some set of port users on the tips for marine environment sustainability where he educated on important measures to follow in order to be able to keep the marine environment safe and habitable under the headship: ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY IN MARINE ENVIRONMENT.
In this piece, he tells you how to sustain the marine environment, why it is necessary to sustain it, and the sea port activities that have impacts on marine environment.
Content
- Objective
- Definitions
- Sea Port Activities That Impact On Marine Environment
- Why Sustain Marine Environment?
- What Can We Do To Sustain Marine Environment?
Objectives
- Inform and educate all on importance of marine to us all as Sea Port users.
- Raise awareness on the need to begin to impact on our immediate environment positively.
Definitions
- Environment: our immediate surroundings. Examples are mainly land, water and air.
Environment is also the sum all factors affecting an organism in its habitat.
- Sustainability: This is the ability or capacity of something to be maintained or to sustain itself.
- Everything we need for our survival or wellbeing depends on our natural environment
- It creates and maintain conditions for humans and nature to exist in productive harmony
Definitions
- Marine: body of large water e.g. Oceans
- Oceans cover 70 % of our planet.
- 97 % of the earth’s water is from Ocean
- 80 % of life on earth is from marine ecosystem
- Impact: marked effect.
Environmental Sustainability
- It involves making decisions and taking actions that are in the interest of a natural world.
- Preserving the capability of the environment to support human life.
- It is a topic that is making business and individuals to realise their impact on the environment.
Sea Port Activities That Affect Marine Environment
Cargo Handling
- Shrink wrapping, labelling, weighing and repackaging
- Loading and discharging
- Cargo movement
- Combining and separating
- Stuffing and destuffing containers
The Effects Of The Activities
- Air pollution through release of emissions from vehicles e.g. CO2, cement dust, heat
- Noise from vehicles, power generating sets conveyors, cranes, people and industrial activities
- Dredging and construction wastes
- Oils like diesel, petrol, vegetable oil
- Sewage
- Garbage
Effects Continues
- Heat increases the temperature of the water
- Oils get to the water as storm water. The oils poison the marine life, form oil slicks to keep sunlight from penetrating the ocean water, killing plants.
- Noise affect the communication animals in the ocean e.g. whales and dolphin
- Sewage do contain some elements that do enrich the ocean and cause alga boom. It contains some bacteria and viruses that could harm marine life
- Effects
- Some industrial waste could contain heavy metal like lead that could cause cancer.
Why Sustain Marine Environment?
- About half a billion people draw their livelihood from the sea.
- The ocean ecosystem provides goods and services valued at several trillion dollars every year.
- Most of the earth’s oxygen is from ocean photosynthesis
- The ocean moderates the earth’s climate.
Why Sustain Marine Environment
- The fresh water on the earth’s surface is from the ocean
- Food. 75 million tons of fish every year.
- Minerals
- Recreation
How To Sustain The Marine Environment
As sea port users, we should be able to control our activities in order not to damage the marine environment further.
- Carry out EIA regularly
- Train all staff
- Treat all storm water before the run into the ocean
- Take some important actions on:
- Waste management
- Heat generation
- Noise
- Reduce vehicular emission of Carbondioxide, water vapour, methane
- Change our light bulbs
