HINTERGRUNDINFORMATIONEN

POLLUTION

Only four percent of the oceans today are completely intact and untouched by humans. Virtually everything humans throw away ends up in the ocean. Industrial waste pollution, air pollution and even agricultural waste have already fouled much of the seas.

Such mass pollution of the seas afflicts whales and dolphins with congenital malformation, cancer and untold varieties of pestilence. In 1999, for example, Greenpeace examined a group of stranded whales for the presence of harmful substances. Even then, the concentration of lethal pollutants was so high, that the whales had to be discarded as hazardous waste.

Meanwhile, plastic waste has come to represent a new element in pollution. Approximately 100 million tons of plastic are produced every year. 10 million tons of waste plastic end up in the ocean.