In our latest post we mentioned about investigating the waters around the marina and an obvious thing popped in our mind - boat pollution. The marina hosts all of the boats coming into our bay, the boats stay there for long periods of time.
Some of the many tipes of pollution caused by boats include hydrocarbons (oil and gasoline), heavy metals from paint, solvents used for cleaning and repair, sewage, organotins from anti-fouling hull treatments and phosphates and surfactants from detergents.
Furthermore there is a quick impact on the marine organisms. Fish take in pollution by filtering the water in search of oxygen by their gills. Bottom-dwelling plants and animals can be buried under the sunk pollutants whereas filter feeding organisms accumulate them in their tissues. Soaps and detergents contain surfactants, which reduce surface tention, destrupting the habitat of the organisms living in the top few centimeteres of the water.
We decided to go to the marina and find out whether they have any policies as host to minimize boat pollution in the area.
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