What are the effects of sewage to marine life?

Answer 1

Pollution in the sea comes in many forms: litter and rubbish; oil spills; chemical runoff, etc. There are huge ramifications for marine animals.

• One of the major problems is that animals such as turtles and sea birds mistake floating plastic for jellyfish. They try to eat them, and these items suffocate the animals. The UN Environment Programme estimates that about one million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals every year are killed by plastic debris, which can include not just plastic bags, but syringes, cigarette lighters and toothbrushes, all of which have been found inside the stomachs of dead seabirds.
• Another significant problem is that birds and marine animals are often entangled in discarded nets and fishing lines. Naturally, the more they struggle, the tighter they become entangled, until they die a slow and painful death.
• Some of the rubbish contains toxins that can get into animals' food chain, slowly poisoning them, or even causing sterility so the species cannot reproduce. The same effect can be caused by pollutants and chemical runoff from land. These poisons can also kill off plant life upon which some species rely. As the plant life dies off, so must the animals which are reliant upon that food source.
• The ocean absorbs a huge amount of our CO2 from the air and atmosphere. Due to the absorption of this high amount of CO2, the oceans have started to become acidic. Shells and other invertebrates' shells are starting to dissolve from the acidity. Without their shells, they die, and it is forseeable that, in the future, coral will cease to exist. With this extinction and death it will effect the entire food chain all the way up to us humans.
• All these pollutants disrupt the respiration, blood chemistry, skin and salt gland functions of many animals' bodies. Pollution is believed to be the cause of a recent herpes-like disease that is killing many sea turtles - fibropapillomas. The exact cause is unknown, but pollution is believed to be responsible for sudden, unexplained diseases that are decimating certain animal populations.

Answer 2

some creatures can go through harsh wastes like sewage but many ote types of marine life will be poisoned and will die.

Nutrient enrichment- Sewage discharges also contain nutrients which when elevated slightly may increase algal and plant growth under certain background conditions. However, when present in high concentrations nutrients can be responsible for the formation of algal blooms which reduce light penetration through the water column, may produce toxins and can cause oxygen depletion when decomposition takes place. This leads to oxygen depletion in the water. When sewage decomposes it uses up oxygen from the surrounding water and if the discharged concentration are too great, the amount of oxygen available for fish and other aquatic animals and plants will be insufficient and they may die.

Answer 3

Death of sea creatures.

Destruction of sea weed and organisms underwater.

Can cause problems in production of corals.

Hard Metals may get deposited in the sea water causing the death of fish.

etc.

Answer 4

Can cause marine animals to pick up diseases and spread them eventually dieing

Answer 5

The plants may not give out any oxygen and the marine wildlife that breathe in the oxygen will die eventually.