Lecture 3: State of Global Environment (Oceans and Coasts)

 welcome to the course environmental impact assessment in the previous session we saw how human

activities have generated emissions and alter the air around us

today we will look at the status of oceans and coast we will follow chapter

7 of the global environment outlook 6 by united nation environments program

so accordingly our coverage will include extent of problems in oceans and coast

we will look at the significance of oceans and coast on human life and look

at this from an indian context as well will understand the concept of healthy

ocean moreover we will talk about the challenges for sustainable use

and management of marine and coastal ecosystems plus issues that focus on tropical coral

reef fishing debris sand mining deep sea mining and

ocean noise so the expected learning outcomes from you after completion of this session

include you should be able to review the extent of problems in oceans and coast

you should be able to synthesize the significance of ocean and coast in human life and you should be able to also see

it's from the indian context you should be able to define the concept of healthy

ocean you should be able to review the challenges of sustainable use and management of marine and coastal

ecosystems you should be able to discuss various issues related with tropical

coral reef fishing debris sand mining deep sea mining and ocean noise

and most importantly you should review all these and understand contextual

perspective of environmental impact assessment as we proceed so we are learning this at the background of eia

so you should be reflecting on it as we know our activities are also influencing the

health of world's oceans we will first look at the extent

we observe that as per the global environment outlook report more than 80 percent of

marine pollution comes from our land-based activities

we see that there is a rapid change in entire marine ecosystems there are

frequent coral bleachings and notable sea level rise

we also note that global warming is causing changes in ocean chemistry

and many oceanic processes and it is threatening many species of marine

animals that cannot cope with higher temperatures furthermore excessive fishing is a

serious problem in many parts of the world the rise of sea levels caused by

global warming is growing concern for our coastal population

for example many pesticides and nutrients used in agriculture eventually reach the coastal

waters which cause oxygen depletion that kills marine plants and selfish

moreover we see that factories and industrial plants discharge sewage and

other runoffs into the oceans we also know about oil spills that

pollute oceans we also know about air pollution air pollution

is said to be responsible for almost one third of the toxic contaminants and

nutrients that enter coastal areas and oceans moreover invasive species such as

poisonous algae cholera and countless plants and animals have entered harbors and destructed the

ecological balance the united nations food and agriculture organization

we see that it estimates that 31.4 percent of fish stocks are either

fished to the capacity to the maximum capacity or overfished

let us now look at the geographical extent of the problem the world's ocean

comprise more than 70 percent of earth's surface and as per the report more than 1.9

billion people lived in coastal areas in 2010 and we see that the number is

expected to reach 2.4 billion by 2050. so 2.4 billion people will be affected

by the change we are talking about that is a huge number we are looking at in these areas

20 of the 30 mega cities are located on the coast so you see the number here and

these mega cities are expected to increase in population faster than

non-urban areas so here even the increase will also happen faster

the three fastest growing coastal mega cities as we see the example include lagos in nigeria guanzo in china and

dhaka in bangladesh so think deeply about the risks involved in these

changes that our activities are causing and now let us see why the oceans are

important to us in the report it is narrated that the health and livelihoods

of many people are directly linked to the ocean through its resources

so when we look at the resources resources such as seafood and the important aesthetics cultural and

religious benefits it provides seafood provides at least 20 percent

of animal protein supply for 3.1 billion people globally as per the food and

agriculture organization of the united nations the income we generate from the tourism

industry is because of these benefits which we see

and as the report suggests it has severe consequences for the economically disadvantaged costal areas

and communities because such areas will be more vulnerable to these changes and

losses coastal ecosystems also provide

numerous environmental benefits such as coastal stabilization

regulation of coastal water quality and quantity we also see biodiversity and spawning

habitats for many important species happen here the ocean is an integral part of the

global climate system as for the inter-governmental panel on climate

change the ocean contributes to the transportation of heat

which influences temperature and rainfall across the planet the

report also provides evidences that about 50 percent of the primary global

production occurs in the ocean we get economically important resources

such as aggregate sand renewable energy and bio pharmaceuticals from

these resources however it's important to see that because of human activities and the drivers which

we had discussed before the health of marine and coastal ecosystem is deteriorating

the pollution climate change overfishing and loss of habitat and biodiversity are

costing the health of marine and coastal ecosystems

this eventually affects us the people it affects our livelihoods and many

indirect benefits that ocean gives to us if we consider india now we look at

india manijune in 2021

wrote for terry that india has a vast ocean of economic opportunity

with more than 7500 kilometer long coastline and we see that 95 of transportation

needs of businesses are met by these water-based economy and this water-based

economy contributes around four percent to gdp

india is also the third largest fish producing and second largest aquaculture

fish producing country in the world country has potential to engage a large

workforce and have been doing so from the past many decades at least

in the sectors such as we've seen fishing aquaculture fish processing marine tourism

shipping and port activities now engagements we see further engagement in new sectors such

as offshore wind marine biology biotechnology and other activities like

ship building and ship breaking is also rising extensively so all these activities are coming up

the fisheries sector alone provides livelihood to about 16 million fisher

folks so you see the range of employment it generates and fish farmers at the

primary level and almost twice the number along the value chain

the shipping sector is also one of the key livelihood providers in the water-based blue economy as india has

one of the largest merchant shipping fleets among the developing countries we also see the number of indian sea farers

who are employed on indian and foreign flag vessels crossed over two lakhs in

2018 and it shows the unprecedented increase of 35 percent over previous

year we also see seaports are also a large source of employment

and unlike india's major ports jobs in smaller ports have increased over the

years in the past five years smaller ports have etched out the major parts and

growth of cargo volumes as well so they are increasing drastically

before the sea marine tourism is also a sector that has been one of the fastest

growing globally and in india particularly in the coastal states like kerala karnataka and tamil nadu coastal

tourism has contributed largely to both the state's economies and livelihoods

for example we can see in kerala the total number of jobs created directly

and indirectly by the sector between 2009 and 2012 in this period was around

23 percent of the total employment that's a huge proportion we are looking at

so review of these facts as for the terry writing shows our dependency on

the oceans and coast and at the same time the environmental risk we face as a

nation now let us see what does a healthy ocean means to us conceptually

as provided by unep by definition a healthy ocean is one

which the basic ecosystem functions and structure are intact

integral thereby basic ecosystem is able to support

livelihoods and contribute to human well-being the ecosystem is resilient to current and future changes it is

important that marine and coastal ecosystems are functioning and used within their environmental limits

they should be used in a way that no severe or irreversible harm is done to

the system such careful utilization will allow us to continue to take full benefit of the

ecosystem however despite this we see there are challenges to sustainably use and manage

the marine and coastal ecosystems we see that as for the report there are

competing pressures on natural resources there are many users of the resources

there are complexities of governance the marine and the coastal ecosystems do not

follow any governance borders and coastal states have rights and obligations within their marine

jurisdiction so let us begin to understand the complexity as explained in the report we see that the ocean

currents can carry chemicals waste

emerging organic pollutants pathogens beyond areas under national

maritime boundaries so your area can be influenced by the activities of the

others over whom you have no control and marine organisms and seabirds which

you see may not remain under the jurisdiction of a state or the boundaries defined by you

these interlinkages between ocean conditions and marine life and the

spatially dynamic ocean processes mean that the activities of any single

industrial sector may have far reaching impact so any anything which is done in

one industry can be impacting somewhere else people located in some other place so you see

the complexity of the problem and its impact at different places and such patterns disrupt the

livelihoods of people who receive no benefits from the industry that has

caused the impact so they just become the victims of the functioning of others

we also see that there are multiple and often conflicting uses as we can see in the image here

the central circle represents major high level drivers of change in human demands

on the ocean such as and as discussed before also we have discussed this before also

population growth urbanization economic development technology and innovation and climate

change these drivers create societal needs indicated in the inner ring such

as need for food construction transportation energy recreation

and in the outer ring we see the industry sector which addresses to these societal needs

these industries addresses our needs and often

ah we'll see through all this eia and discourse we need to regulate

them to protect the ecosystem through policies so we can see how

we have multiple and conflicting uses then we also have global problems like

climate change and ocean acidification which needs to be addressed

climate change impacts ocean temperature sea ice extend and thickness

salinity sea level rise and extreme weather events

ocean have many uses and there are too many linkages among marine ecosystems

and between the land and adjacencies we may also reflect

that there are numerous industries dependent on the oceanic and coastal

resources with very high economic value and generating increased employment with

major environmental impacts we see sectors such as fishing shipping

port offshore hydrocarbon industries other marine based industries

marine based mining marine based tourism so all these you can see and then the impact range from

changes of the food web structure and function we also see that

bycatchers happens of the non targeted species during the fishing gear impacts on the

seabed habitats and benthos benthos which means the flora and fauna found on

the bottom or in the bottom sediments of a sea or a lake which are especially

structurally fragile habitat so even they get impacted by this shipping disaster and accidents also

happen we also see chronic and episodic release of fuel and other hydrocarbons

we see discharge of sea rage waste and grey water we also see transmission of

invasive species so there are very invasive species which get transmitted to other locations because of this

we also see noise from ships maritime transport responsible we see that maritime transport is

responsible for about three percent of global greenhouse gas emissions

furthermore we see concentration of shipping and its potential environmental impacts

of their frequent need for dredging and access to deep water passages we also see

impacts on seabed and coastal from the construction of infrastructure so you

you saw a range of impact which happens now we will look at some of the upcoming

issues so what are the issues we will only focus on the limited ones so ah we'll look at tropical coral reefs

the fishing issue we'll also look at the debris entering the marine environment that is the marine litter

we will also look at few emerging topics such as mercury sand mining deep sea

mining and ocean noise the unep report states with the well-established fact

that the tropical coral reefs have passed the tipping point whereby chronic bleaching chronic

bleaching has killed many reefs that are unlikely to recover even over century

long time scale let's try to understand what is tipping point means

the tipping point means from where we cannot resume we lose the balance and we cannot get back to normal things are out

of control the coral bleating observed is due to the warming of the oceans

which is because of anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases which we have already

seen before and this emissions are happening since the industrial revolution here looking at

the significance of the tropical coral reefs they are the important biodiverse

ecosystem on earth as per the study we see that tropical coral reefs display

approximately 30 percent of all marine biodiversity

as per the report the coral triangle region so we're looking at the coral triangle region which includes indonesia

malaysia philippines taimou leste papua new guana and solomon islands is the

area of greatest biodiversity the coral triangle which we are looking at hosts

more than 550 species of hard corals due to multiple human pressure in this

particular area including pollution fishing and coral breeding the current state of reef

health is very poor at many sites here let us try to understand coral bleaching

so what is that coral bleaching occurs when corals are stressed by changes in

conditions such as temperature light and nutrients these changes cause them to expel

symbiotic algae which rest over it living in the their tissues

once the symbolic algae is expelled the coral looks like white skeletons so

that's that's called coral bleaching as you can see in the image here

it is important to note that why we are saying it has reached a tipping point

although the study is incomplete and ongoing ah as per the study the frequency of

large scale coral reef bleaching events which happens because of this change in ocean surface

temperature have increased over the last two decades the recurrence interval between coral

bleaching events is now about six years whereas the reef recovery rates are

known to exceed 10 years which means that as the cycle of bleaching is shorter we are looking at

the six years then the recovery which is 10 years the difference in the cycles will not allow

sufficient time for reefs to recover between the bleaching events therefore

it is expected that in times to come there will be a steadily downward spiral

in the reef health the scientific evidences however inconclusive right now

indicate that the reef death will lead to loss in fisheries tourism livelihoods

and habitats depletion of coral reef ecosystem will cause loss of industries

and employment dependent on them according to the reports 2015 northern

hemisphere and 2015 2016 southern hemisphere summers were

the hottest ever recorded this caused the worst coral bleaching on record the united states national

oceanic and atmospheric administration declared 2015 as the beginning of the

third global coral bleaching event following similar events in 1998

and 2010. the report indicates that the third event is still ongoing so we are still

experiencing the loss this third event is longest and most damaging recorded

thus far this event till date has affected 70 percent of world's reef and

some areas are experiencing animal bleating in the map you can see the maximum heat

stress during 2014 and 17. it's still continuing in 2021

the dark brown zones which you can see in the map

is the alert level 2 which indicates widespread coral bleaching due to heat

stress and significant mortality levels level 1 heat stress shown in red

indicates significant coral bleaching you may see other warning areas marked

in mustard and yellow color here you may try to identify india and the coastal

regions and its associated alert levels the report quotes from the initial study

from vernon in 2009 which predicts that coral reef bleating

tipping point would occur once global atmospheric carbon dioxide reaches 350

ppm this value was reached in about 1988 so we had reached that value then but as

indicated by studies because ocean warming lags behind global

atmospheric co2 levels it has taken almost 30 years

for impact of this level of co2 to show up the given explanation for lag effect is

that global ocean circulation is slower compared to the rapid rate of rising co2 levels so the

ocean gets warmer later because of this the ocean is currently

responding to co2 levels of decades ago and subsequent accumulation which

gathered later the evidences indicates that the tipping point for coral bleaching has now been

passed we're already late the report states that global atmospheric co2 levels are now in excess

of 400 ppm therefore there are serious implications for the very survival of coral reefs

now let us look at the social and economic impacts of these changes

according to the study conducted in 2016 275 million people in 79 countries

depended on reef associated fisheries as their major source of animal protein so

today there is an issue of food security the degradation of coral reef has eroded

their values which has adversely affected the dependent communities with the death of coral

there will be loss of reefs gradually the danger of the death of reefs is the

that show lines will become vulnerable to storms and rising sea levels because

the reefs will be submerged because of this degradation which is happening

so dead corals will have reduced tourism value because of the lost beauty and

will also contain less biodiverse species of fish all this cumulatively threaten the

livelihood of local communities living coral reefs are also said to be important religious symbols for some so

we see how this loss is going to impact us socially and economically moving on

now let us look at the fisheries the ocean is an increasingly important source of food

as per the report fish provides more than 20 percent of uh dietary protein to

over 3.1 billion people particularly in coastal areas food

security concerns are increasing nutritional value of fish is challenging

to replace in areas where availability of fish is declining in order to meet future challenges of

food security and healthy population expansion of fisheries and aquaculture

are inevitable so because we have to meet to the food needs of so many people that we have to

expand fisheries and also look into the aquaculture the changes which happens in the ocean are due to the following

reason number one we see that it's because of the natural variation number two the

climate change number three and the most important by us we remove the resources

from the ocean mostly by harvesting of fish and the other marine organisms from for our

consumption and for the industries industrial uses we also see the capture

production the fishing which we do which is a natural fishing has been stable around 90 million tons for over 15 years

however we see increase in the production from aquaculture facilities as seen in the graph year

although the capital fisheries plateaued so it has become stable for quite some time ah in the early 2000s

mariculture continues to expand and if current trends it is said that if current ends continued will soon surpass

them large-scale mariculture of market-oriented high-value fish and

shellfish such as tuna salmons and so on now contributes significantly to the economies of most coastal developed

countries and we also see small scale mariculture is also expanding through

less developed countries and economies which are in transition

moving on we also find the mercury in the marine environment mercury's top 10

chemicals of major public health as per the world health organization

mercury especially in form of methyl mercury is a powerful

neurotoxin which even at a low concentration can affect fatal

and childhood development and cause neurological damage

despite the associated health benefits of eating fish due to high methyl mercury levels in some seafoods and risk

uncertainty i think there are a lot of advisories which have been given for especially for the pregnant woman in

many of the countries in the image you can see the process through which mercury enters the food

chain mercury sticks to the algae in the surface water which eventually sinks and

is eaten by microbes and in the process it becomes methyl mercury which is toxic methyl

mercury is passed along the food chain through the process known as biomagnification

in the process the toxin passes from small fish to large fish and its concentration increases

organism can accumulate high concentration of mercury over time the process is known as bio accumulation

happens when organisms consume mercury at a higher rate than the removal rate

as for the report the population depends on marine organism for nutrition may be vulnerable to high exposure to methyl

mercury and persistent organic pollutants and especially we may pay attention that

these risks are highest in areas of considerable food insecurity moreover climate change may also

aggravate emissions of mercury from long-term storage in the frozen peatlands of the northern

hemisphere this has potential to increase the input of mercury into oceans

now let us look at the impact of fishing on marine ecosystems major impacts

include number one we see alteration of food webs ah number two we see mariculture impacts

mariculture is the cultivation of fish or other marine life for food has also

substantially impacted marine ecosystem the studies show that impact of these

effects are growing conversion of mangroves for mariculture has resulted in widespread habitat loss

these losses have far reaching implications for dependent species loss of species happens because of the

dense culture facilities use of antibiotics and other medications to prevent disease in these kinds of

facilities also the excessive feed which sink through the cages accumulate on the

seafloor and decompose and reduce oxygen levels in the water so all these is

causing impact now moving on let us look at marine litter

we see that the amount of marine litter which is the waste

it continues to increase it is estimated that 8 million tons of plastic enters

the ocean each year mainly because of the mismanagement of domestic waste in the coastal areas

as per the established ongoing studies marine litter has been found at all

ocean depths the report suggests that without intervention the quantity of plastic in

the ocean is expected to increase and the number is going to increase to 100 to 250 million tons by 2025. in the

image you can see that the global plastic input in the ocean based on human activities and watershed

characteristics you can see various plastic sources circles shown in the

yellow is from the fishing intensity brown circle from the coastal input blue

circle the impervious surface and watershed and gray circle due to shipping the studies indicate that

marine litter are related to the efficiency of solid waste management how well we manage our solid waste and

wastewater treatments it is generally accepted that the that the large proportion of plastic

enters the ocean originates on land so that is important for us to note

it makes its way into the marine environment why a storm water runoff river or is

directly discharged into the coastal waters uncollected waste is thought to be the

major source and we also see that poorly operated dump sites also contribute to this

particular problem we also see that the greatest accumulation of marine litter is in the coastal environments

plastics is distributed worldwide in ocean with

increased accumulation in the convergence zones of each of the five subtropical gyres plastic pollution

is has been recognized for decades as a threat to my dreamed biodiversity one of the most visible impact is the

death or the injury of marine life from entanglement and with old fishing gears

plastic packaging and so on and recent reviews have found that a growing

number of turtles marine mammals and sea birds are endangered or killed by floating litter

in the image you can see the plastic current the study also highlights the concerns

of chemicals found in oceans the economic and social cost of marine litter include indirect effects such as

interfering with small scale fishing opportunities tourism and vacation some direct economic costs include cost

of beat cleanup and accidents related to navigation hazards now let us look at

few other emerging issues for oceans ah we look at coastals and mining around

the globe coastal and near shore areas are being mined for construction sand and gravel

these are non-renewable resources and these are one of the

uh second most used natural resource in our planet after water so we see that

these mining is constantly being taken constantly being done and if it is an

illegal and poorly regulated sand mining on beaches is causing major damage to ecosystems and landscape

we see that deep sea mining exploration has been initiated to search for more oceanic resources uh we also see it is

however not well established but we see that even this has impact like

it impacts the benthic communities the bottom most

seabed impact on the benthos due to mobilization transport and redeposition of sediments

impact in the water columns because of mining vessels these all impacts are happening and we see that a sea bed

disturbance experiment which was done in peru basin found very little recovery of

benthic fauna 26 years after mimicking mining operations so you see how long it

takes for recovery we see that's lack of knowledge and

understanding however it's it's a time for us to be very cautious how we start in this particular industry

we also see the cases of anthropogenic ocean noise or this is another concern

raised in the report uh the potential impact of anthropogenic acoustic noise

on the marine life the noise generated by range of activities include shipping sesame

surveys military operation wind farms channel dredgings and aggregate

extraction so we see that there is increasing concern about the long-term

and cumulative effects of noise on marine biodiversity therefore the oceans

are impacted by numerous human activities and the most serious impact are related to climate change land beats

pollutions and fishing the impact of climate change as it says by unap indicates

several issues such as ocean acidification sea level rise changes to

the water water the disturbance of many fish and in vertebrate species and ocean

circulation the most dramatic and immediate impact of climate change on the ocean in recent years is

bleating which we had already discussed explained in detail and we also looked at the pollution from

plastic in particular and we also looked at the fishery sector there there are

concerns of overfishing climate change impact and species distribution pattern and the rise of aquaculture

so to summarize today's session we reviewed the extent of problems in

oceans and coasts saw the significance of oceans and coast and human life we defined the concept of healthy ocean we

reviewed the challenges of sustainable use and management of marine and coastal ecosystem

we discussed various problems related to tropical coral reef fishing debris sand

mining deep sea mining and ocean noise it is important that we all reflect upon

the need intensity and complexity of the eia which we are going to explore

these were the references used for this particular session our coverage has been limited as per the scope of the subject

additional resources to read and watch are provided to you please feel free to ask questions let us know about any

concerns you have to share your opinions experiences suggestions looking forward

to interacting and co-learning with you in our discourse of eia thank you