Why We Should Still Hold Out Hope For Our Oceans: The Case of the Black Sea

When many of us think of the ocean, the Black Sea is not a location that frequently springs to mind; in fact, tourists have only recently started setting up their sunbeds on its shores. Despite being little known, the Black Sea does have one claim to fame: it’s the most polluted sea in Europe. Over 145 known pollutants have been found in its water including anything from flame retardants to sun tan lotion to pharmaceuticals. 20 years ago, this patch of water was considered a dead zone and a threat to human health but only two decades later, the future is looking brighter and this corner of ocean has hope again. Amongst all the negative media showcasing the doom and gloom of plastic pollution, we hope this story will show you that there can be light at the end of all our hard work and it’s closer than you think.

The Black Sea actually spreads across 436,000 kilometres squared and joins together Europe and Asia, with its long sandy shores covering the coastlines of Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey, Ukraine, Russia and Georgia. Over the years however, the region has suffered from pollution, a loss of biodiversity and coastal degradation as the sea has been treated as a dumping ground for all types of human waste. However, it’s not just these six countries which are up for blame; the River Danube is actually the greatest source of pollution to the area, its currents transporting a huge variety of junk before dumping it in this inland sea. In the past, one of the theories as to why the Black Sea got its name was because of the angry and savage tribes which lived upon its shores. Today, alarming beasts still inhabit the shores, except this time, it’s in the form of human sewage, antibiotic resistant bacteria and plastic.

Seeing as rivers are dumping a huge amount of waste in the area, this is a transboundary issue as rubbish enters the river upstream in landlocked countries and makes its way down to the poor coastlines on the edges of the Black Sea. In fact, 30% of the pollution found here is derived from landlocked countries which have the silver meander of the River Danube running through them. 170 million people contribute to the pollution heading into this river yet because of its never-ending flow towards the sea, they fail to see their own build up of trash. One of the greatest problems here is sewage as in the 1990s, 50% of the sewage sloshing into the river was untreated; remaining unchanged from the flush of the toilet to the sea. Obviously, this causes significant threats to human health and it damaged the tourist reputation of the area for many years. Yet there is another hidden danger in this type of very human waste.

Any medication we take, be it paracetamol, sleeping pills or antibiotics has to leave our body somehow and most often it is flushed out when we go to the toilet. This means traces of hormones and medicines are in surprisingly high quantities in our rivers and seas. In response to this, bacteria are exposed to high levels of antibiotics in the ocean which kills off the weaklings but leaves those resistant to the drug thriving in our marine environments. Over time, these iron stomached resistant bacteria transfer their genes and DNA to those more susceptible to the drug; in effect, creating a whole new army of microbes which are resistant to our antibiotic treatments. In the USA alone, already two million people a year get infections which are found to be resistant to antibiotics and this is only set to get worse if sewage continues to pour into our waterways. Luckily for the Danube, new water treatment plants have been built along its banks which has meant that now only 5% of the water entering the river is untreated as opposed to a staggering 50% 20 years ago. To help improve the problem in the future, researchers have recently found a type of light clay which dramatically reduces the concentrations of drugs such as ibuprofen in the water. Reed beds, with this miracle clay as the base, could be created along stretches of the winding Danube which would help reduce the level of artificial chemicals flowing into the Black Sea, making it a safe place to swim and escape the summer heat once again.

While this is all great and positive news, 70% of all our antibiotics are used in agriculture and aquaculture which also easily make their way into our oceans with just a little help from a rainstorm. Everything that lies on agricultural land, be that cow dung, pesticides or fertiliser gets washed into our rivers or streams with each rain shower and this causes something called nutrient loading. This is where high levels of nitrogen and phosphorus, chemicals contained in fertilisers and sewage, enter the water and boost the growth of algae until we have large algal blooms which cover the surface of the water, turning into vivid shades of red, green and blue. This algae blocks sunlight from the plants growing on the seabed which causes them to die. The death of marine plants like seagrass means that less oxygen is produced, something worsened when bacteria come along and snack on all the dead vegetation which uses up even more oxygen. This creates what is called an ‘ocean dead zone’ as the lack of oxygen and plant life means that fish and larger species can no longer live in the area and the surrounding ocean becomes barren. Solving this problem can actually be relatively simple and involves educating and persuading farmers to switch to organic fertilisers which have lower levels of chemicals while also planting more trees, shrubs and cover crops which act as buffers, absorbing much of the water before it reaches our rivers.

Finally, of course, this wouldn’t be the most polluted sea in Europe if it didn’t contain plastic. Much of the physical human junk in the Black Sea is washed or blown in from large landfill sites. Many of these are practically built on top of rivers, seeing heaps of rubbish crumble and slide down the hillsides and straight onto the pebbled beaches. Yet again though, rivers form a massive source of plastic with 40 tonnes of microplastics per year being transported through Austria’s stretch of the Danube alone. That’s forgetting all other 16 countries which border the river and forgetting all the larger pieces of plastic such as water bottles, wrapping and straws. Can you now see why river cleans are so important too? To solve the plastic problem, waste practices in the area have been modernised to stop illegal landfills piling up on the banks of the many rivers emptying their load into the Black Sea whilst ingenious transparent skips have been implemented which has meant people are less likely to dump rubbish which is either recyclable or not legally supposed to be there. An app has also been developed which has mobilised hundreds of volunteers to clean beaches and record the types of litter they find which has allowed authorities to target the worst pollution offenders. Locals can also use the app to record the return of local red seaweed, the health of mussel populations and dolphin sightings.

So over the last 20 years, a relatively short timescale, the Black Sea region has seen a massive increase in small yet effective positive changes to tackle all the main sources of pollution which were threatening this unique area. This gives us hope for the future and all our other beautiful coastal areas which are suffering from human activities. If change came to the Black Sea in the decades where environmental action was still relatively novel, then imagine the changes we can create now that the environmental movement is firmly on everyone’s mind and in their daily lives. Sometimes our beach cleans feel like they are only stemming the flow of plastic not holding back the tide, while when we look around, plastic seems to remain everywhere we look. Yet this example should provide us with hope and promise for the future of ocean conservation, especially for small scale ventures wishing to make a real difference.

By Neve McCracken-Heywood