Aegean Sea is in danger of becoming another Adriatic due to growing pollution levels from land-based sources
Five months since the sinking of the Sea Diamond cruise ship in the port of Santorini, about 300 tons of fuel are still trapped inside the ship’s hull. Experts call it a toxic time bomb and when it explodes, it will cause untold damage to the marine ecosystem in the region and throughout the Aegean. However, these sunken fuel tanks just off the caldera are only one of the threats to the archipelago. Heavy traffic in the form of merchant ships and passenger craft, on the one hand, and the dumping of unprocessed urban waste and outflow from rivers polluted by agricultural chemicals, on the other, combine to produce a different picture than the one presented at the start of every summer when the European Union’s Blue Flags are awarded to the cleanest beaches (this year, Greece was awarded 428). The source of the problem lies on land. In 2007, most Greek cities and towns were not properly processing their urban and industrial waste, poisoning the water table and marine environment. It is no coincidence that eutrophication (a proliferation of plant life, especially algae, which reduces the dissolved oxygen content and often causes the extinction of other organisms) has been observed in both the Thermaic and Saronic gulfs. Pollution has also been exacerbated by the proliferation of coastal tourism resorts without any accompanying infrastructure projects. Throughout the Greek islands, there are fewer than 10 waste-processing plants in full operation. The remainder, where they exist, are either underfunctioning or inactive. Also a danger to the sea are the dozens of open garbage dumps throughout the islands where waste is incinerated. After rain, huge quantities of toxic waste ends up in the sea. «Sailing through the Aegean on the research ship Archipelagos on days when visibility is good, the Aegean looks like another Tierra del Fuego with the dozens of fires from the islands’ garbage dumps,» said Theodoris Tsibidis of the NGO Archipelagos. «Unfortunately, that also means a heightened fire risk in summer.» The Aegean also faces a threat from the east. Izmir, on Turkey’s Aegean coast, is the largest source of industrial waste in that region and rampant construction over the past 10 years in Kusadasi has been an obstacle to creating the proper infrastructure for sustainable waste management. Several rivers that flow down through northern Greece from Balkan countries channel industrial waste into the sea. In their Greek stretches, more chemicals are added in the form of pesticides and fertilizers. According to a recent survey by the European Environmental Service for the Mediterranean, the major source of nitrates that end up in the Aegean is farm waste, 45 percent (in the Cyclades) to 70 percent (eastern Peloponnese) of the total load. One tragic consequence of pollution in the eastern Mediterranean and the Aegean, in particular, is evident in a survey by MOm, the Hellenic Society for the Study and Protection of the Monk Seal, and Barcelona University which traced pollutants in the tissues of the seal (Monachus monachus). In the fat of dead seals, extremely high levels of PCBs were found, the residue of industrial waste, and even higher levels of dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, or DDT (used in agriculture). The levels of these found in seals in Greek waters were higher than those found in seals in Mauritania, where the second-largest population of the species is found. Specifically, the levels of industrial waste were five times higher and of agricultural chemicals 20 times higher. «Obviously farming is not carried out in Mauritania to the same extent; however, the high levels in Greece show how much human activities affect all species,» explained biologist Evgenia Androukaki, a member of MOm. «The results do not bode well for the survival of that species nor for the marine environment, because seals and other large mammals are the top of the food chain. The first recipients of pollution are shellfish, then the fish and last of all seals, dolphins and other mammals.» These pollutants have been shown to have a negative effect on animals’ reproductive abilities, obstructing their production of hormones and weakening their immune systems.
