Recreational Activities May be Polluting Our Oceans with Oil

It turns out that fun and games may be hurting the environment. Scientists have found that recreational activity is a major pollutant on the Canadian coast of the Pacific Ocean, reveal the importance of monitoring marina discharges.

During the course of the study, the researchers conducted a geospatial analysis of oil discharges in the Canadian Pacific Ocean. Surprisingly, they found that a large portion of oil discharge stems from recreational activities, passenger traffic and fisheries. In contrast, oil tankers and commercial cargo ships are contributing little to pollution along the British Columbia Coast.

"Cargo ships and oil tankers are much more regulated with portside inspects and they have to meet certain standards," said Stefania Bertazzon, lead author of the new paper, in a news release. "They're very aware of this surveillance and this is probably why our analysis suggests that they are responsible for a smaller portion of detected oil discharges. They have to be more careful. We're not saying that cargo ships and oil tankers are not polluting. What we are saying is that they are not the only source of pollution in the Canadian Pacific Ocean."

The problem is that there is a lot of oil discharge at fuel docks, which is largely uncontrolled. In marinas, there are also old boats that have been sitting for years and slowly leaking into the ocean. While this isn't a huge spill and it's a relatively small discharge, the number of vessels can add up.

"There is scientific evidence to show that these day to day activities have a larger impact of the wildlife and the marine ecosystem than those accidents that are huge, but limited n space and time," said Bertazzon. "What we're talking about happens every day, all along the coast. The impact is longer term and over a larger spatial extent."

The findings are published in the journal Applied Geography.