ENVIRONMENTAL ASPECTS OF MARINE TRANSPORT OPERATIONS

摘要

The oceans have been used for almost five thousand years for military purposes, for the transportation of goods and people and, especially in this century, for recreational activities. Today the oceanic seaways, still provide a vitally important transportation system and probably always will. They also contain rich resources of food, energy and minerals which have yet to be fully exploited but there is already growing concern that they are being contaminated by pollution originating not only from the populated coastal areas but also from the actual use of the seas by marine vehicles. The waste generated in shipping activities has invariably been dumped into the oceans, often indiscriminately and in ignorance of the effects.However, increasing environmental awareness has now led the civilian and military marine transportation sectors to focus on the elimination of ship based environmental hazards. These hazards can take the form of atmospheric pollution, such as exhaust gases, or seawater pollution, such as sewage discharge and garbage disposal. The environmentally unfriendly discharges from vessels are not always intentional, for example, grease from the steering mechanism and erosion of the toxic anti-fouling hull paint have only been recently identified as harmful agents.The purpose of this paper is to review the actual and potential environmental problem associated with the operation of both surface ships and underwater vehicles. In addition, techniques and problems associated with the control or elimination of the hazards are discussed and areas for future research identified.