Over the years, studies have revealed some of the environmental effects vessels have on waterways. This prompt new regulations to help mitigate these impacts. However, even with the onset of restrictions and legislation, unfortunately, vessels continue to negatively impact marine life in certain ways.
Below, we’ve highlighted just a few examples of how vessels can harm and alter aquatic ecosystems.
Noise Pollution
Sounds that resonate from vessels, such as their propellers, create noise pollution that’s extremely harmful to marine life. After all, sound travels faster underwater, and these foreign noises disrupt the natural sounds marine animals use to avoid predators, search for prey, and find one another.
This noise is not only painful to animals, damaging their internal organs and causing hemorrhages. But it can also cause confusion and panic, which can make them breach or migrate into unfamiliar waters. When marine animals can’t hear properly, they may separate from their mates and offspring, get lost, or migrate the wrong way. This forced migration stresses out marine life but also introduces invasive species into different waterways, forever changing underwater communities.
Marine Pollutants
It’s no surprise that vessels omit pollution, such as heavy fuel oil, into the waterways. Which is harmful to the marine environment. But now, as the sea ice melts in the Arctic, it’s giving way to new shipping routes, so we’re seeing an increase in vessels (and, therefore, fossil fuels) that are polluting these waterways that have never experienced such high volumes of shipping traffic.
Unfortunately, fossil fuels break down slower in colder waters and stick to the ice. Which destroys the marine environment and kills off marine life. Of course, this not only negatively impacts life underwater, but it also has a detrimental effect on the surrounding human communities in the Arctic that rely on fish and other marine animals as a source of food.
Ballast Water
Cargo carriers often take ballast water from coastal waters and place it in tanks on board to help maintain the stability of the vessel. This water is collected from one region and then discharged at a port in another region.
However, as one can imagine, that ballast water contains all kinds of plants, bacteria, organisms, and even animals that are native to one region that is then introduced into a completely new region. Called bioinvaders, these invasive species and pathogens spread into the new aquatic environment and wrench havoc on its ecosystems.
Marine Life Collisions
Sadly, ship collisions with marine mammals, fish, and sea turtles are a major leading cause of marine animal injuries and deaths. In fact, these vessel strikes are so severe they’re contributing to wildlife extinction. And are one of the deadliest threats to whales alone. Roughly 20,000 whales die each year due to vessel collisions. And as more of these animals die in ship collisions, we can expect to see changes in the food chain and disruptions to the entire ecosystem.
Looking Ahead
The good news is these environmental threats aren’t going unnoticed. For instance, some vessels are already incorporating quieter propellers to help reduce noise pollution. While new regulations are introducing speed limits and rerouting vessels around certain areas to avoid protected marine areas. The more we learn about the impact of vessels on marine life, the more we learn about how we can prevent some of the negative effects.
