title: Marine Pollution: What Everyone Needs to Know
author:  Judith S. Weis 
description: <br />"<em>Marine Pollution</em> is a great tutorial as well as a great source for the general public." -- Atlantic Estuarine Research Society (AESR) News
zlib_text: Contamination and Pollution in the Marine
  Environment
  STEPHEN J. DE MORA
  1
  An Overview of Marine Pollution
  Both contamination and pollution entail the perturbation of the natural state of
  the environment by anthropogenic activity. The two terms are distinguishable by
  the severity of the eﬀect: pollution induces the loss of potential resources.�
  Additionally,a clear cause—eﬀect relationship must be established for a substance
  to be classiﬁed as a pollutant towards a particular organism.
  In the marine environment, human-induced disturbances take many forms.
  Owing to source strengths and pathways, the greatest eﬀects tend to be in the
  coastal zone. Waters and sediments in such regions bear the brunt of industrial
  and sewage discharges and are subject to dredging and spoil dumping.
  Agricultural runoﬀ may contain pesticide residues and elevated nutrients, the
  latter of which may over-stimulate biological activity, producing eutrophication
  in the water column or anoxic conditions in underlyi