Mumbai’s marine life swimming in troubled waters
After four dolphins were washed ashore in July alone, one simply couldn’t help but think if it was a coincidence that sea animals were getting beached suddenly, or was it something else.
It could well be an aftermath of our decades-long misdoings? Whatever it is , it surely a disaster waiting to happen. It is not every day that the city witnesses tonnes of plastic being spewed out by the seas onto the shores.
Also, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) releases 670 million litres of treated sewage into the sea every day; and that is the official figure we are talking about. What is the unofficial one? God alone knows. Even the sea might have had enough!
According to environmentalists and marine experts, the dolphins died of respiratory problems and lower body infections.
A senior forensic expert, who did not want to be named, said that marine animals like the dolphins are dying due to infections and their carcarcasses are floating ashore. These deaths, the senior forensic expert stated were mostly due to toxins and increased lead content in the water. He also stressed the need to improve the water quality along the Mumbai coast by deputing special squads to clear the toxic pollutants. Lead usually leaches into the sea from old ships rotting at sea.
This throws open a litany of questions about sea cleanliness. Another marine biologist who wished to remain anonymous said, “There is no science or technology to actually measure sea pollution. We can understand how much of it is thrown into the sea, but how much of waste is there at this moment, we don’t know.”
This situation is more grave than a handful of mammals washing ashore. What is going on in the unexplored world of sea should be of great worry to sea life and mankind as well.
A study by the Maritime Research Centre at the Indian Maritime Foundation, Pune, has also found that noise from ships, cargo vessels and trawlers is likely to be one of the main reasons behind the increasing casualties of marine mammals.
The study also found three main sources — ships using sonar technology, seismic surveys, and the sound of various machines used by ships and vessels — as the cause of noise pollution under water.
Over the past two years, carcasses of more than 120 marine mammals, including dolphins, porpoises and whales, have been washed ashore in Mumbai and surrounding areas.
A federation of fishermen’s unions in the country also attributed sea deaths to increasing pollution in the sea. “It is more than just change of temperature in our seas. It can also be due to severe pollution. We often witness dead fish washing ashore in bulk due to such infections,” he said.
Humans will soon run out of places to dump waste, even the sea, which had earlier kept our littering, a secret. So either humans can learn to respect nature, or it will have it back by force.