The consequences of marine pollution due to oil spill

Vietnam's sea is an open sea connecting the Pacific and Indian Ocean, which is one of the navigable axes with very large traffic, of which 70% are oil tankers.

Although not yet classified into the sea with serious pollution levels, it is also warned that there is a high risk of pollution in the future, because the industry is developing strongly in coastal areas, plus exploration and declaration activities. Oil and gas exploitation and transportation in the area is increasing, while this is the area where frequent dangerous natural disasters occur at sea.

According to the Institute of Marine Science and Natural Resources Institute - Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology: Since 1989, Vietnam's waters have about 100 oil spills due to ship accidents, these accidents are all pouring into the sea from a few dozen to hundreds of tons of oil. Oil spills often occur in March and April every year in Central Vietnam; from May to June in the North.

Statistics show that in the period of 1992-2008, the amount of oil spilled on Vietnam sea comes from many different causes. Specifically, oil spills of 7-700 tons are often concentrated mainly by stranded ships. And oil spills with a larger number of 700 tons are mainly due to the process of transporting oil and colliding ships at sea.

Oil spills pollute the marine environment, seriously affecting ecosystems. Especially mangrove ecosystems, seagrass, sandy tidal areas, lagoons and coral reefs. Oil pollution reduces the ability of resilience, flexibility and resilience of ecosystems. High oil content in the water, oil films reduce the ability of oxygen exchange between air and water, reduce oxygen in the water, causing the balance of oxygen regulation in the ecosystem to be overturned.

In addition, oil spills contain toxins that damage the ecosystem, which can cause ecosystem degradation. Because oil contains many different ingredients, altering, destroying cell structure, sometimes killing the whole population. Oil seeps into the sand, sludge in the seaside can affect for a very long time. There have been many cases where the species died massively due to the impact of the oil spill.

Another alarming thing is that the oil spread on the sea and ashore for a long time without being collected will degrade the number of organisms, causing damage to the fisheries and aquaculture industry. Oils that pollute the water make fish die in mass due to lack of dissolved oxygen. Oil clinging to soil, rock embankments, island banks, causing aesthetics, causing unpleasant odors leading to heavy revenue of tourism industry. Oil spill also affects the operation of fishing ports, shipbuilding and shipbuilding facilities. Due to floating oil damages machinery, equipment for exploiting resources and shipping waterways.

Through surveys at the fishing port of Lach Bang, Tinh Gia district, Thanh Hoa province, where is often the anchorage point for thousands of fishing vessels from different regions and regions. The pollution of the water environment here is caused by the debris of the "carefree" ships with a large area.

If 10 years ago, this estuarine area was rich in mangrove ecosystems, now almost the entire area of ​​oil-contaminated mangroves is dying and dying, leading to dynamic and real Brackish creatures almost extinct. It is also a continuous occurrence of oil pollution causing hundreds of hectares of aquaculture to be lost, so many households are forced to quit their jobs.

Therefore, the environmental problem of oil spill can be considered as one of the types of incidents causing the biggest economic loss, in all kinds of human-caused environmental incidents. Currently, the determination of oil spill location and overcoming this problem in Vietnam is still limited, both in the legal basis and in the specialized equipment and technical facilities to overcome oil spill pollution.