Oceans of Trouble

IN AN average year, mankind dumps some 34 million gallons [130 million L] of oil into the oceans of the world. That figure, staggering as it is, does not even include the occasional gigantic spills, such as the 1989 Exxon Valdez debacle off the coast of Alaska, U.S.A., or the disaster in the Persian Gulf last year, which saw some 42 million gallons [160 million L] of oil a day flooding into the sea!

But man dumps much more than oil into the oceans. In the North Sea off the coast of Germany, industrial chemicals are reaching levels that experts describe as toxic. As far as 120 miles [200 km] offshore, a lethal component of paint used to protect the hulls of ships is contaminating what oceanographers call the microlayer. This crucial surface layer of the ocean is a nursery for rafts of fish eggs, as well as a home to the microscopic organisms that are the main source of food for many ocean creatures.

South of Europe, scientists have found that the microlayer of the Mediterranean Sea is likewise laden with chemical pollutants, oil, and sewage. Sea mammals, such as whales, are especially hurt by a befouled microlayer, since they must surface regularly to breathe. Thus, some 6,000 sea mammals die in the Mediterranean every year, mostly from pollution. During one period, hundreds of dolphins washed ashore on Mediterranean beaches​—up to 50 each week along the French coast alone. A virus had attacked the sleek, graceful creatures. Pollution may well be assisting the disease by lowering the dolphins’ resistance. Ominously, oceanographer Jean-​Michel Cousteau wrote: “If dolphins can die from pollution, so can we.”

Such a prediction may sound dire. But the fact is, pollution already endangers mankind in myriads of ways. For instance, rescue workers off the coast of Newfoundland have found that pollution hindered their efforts to find survivors of a plane crash. This time the culprit was plastic garbage. It so dotted the ocean that rescue teams couldn’t tell if they were sighting pieces of wreckage or pieces of junk. They never found any survivors.

A sad story, isn’t it? But just think: If the pollution crisis weighs heavily upon the human heart, how must it feel to the One who created “the seas and all that is in them”? (Nehemiah 9:6) Surely, the time must be fast approaching when he will “bring to ruin those ruining the earth.”​—Revelation 11:18.

[Picture Credit Line on page 31]

Mike Baytoff/​Black Star