nd at a conference Northern European nations have discussing pollution in the Baltic Sea. In the world the most polluted waterways is the Baltic sea. Nine nations which are brought together by the Baltic Sea Action Summit, share the coastline, and was chaired by the Finnish President Tarja Halonen.'Today some of the richest and most environmentally-conscious countries on earth live on the shore of the world's most polluted seas. What a tragedy. It is clear that something has to be done and quickly": she said.
The Baltic is a vulnerable sea which is almost enclosed, very shallow, and fed by numerous rivers. Around 90 million people live around its shore, many of them depending on the sea on some way or other for their livelihoods, but waste from industry, agriculture and daily life ends up in the sea.
The oceans and seas receive the brunt of human waste, whether it is by deliberate dumping or by natural run-off from the land. 80% of all marine pollution comes from land-based activities and many pollutants are deposited in estuaries and coastal waters. The pollutants enter marine food chains, building up their concentrations until they reach to the toxic levels. In Minimata in Japan many people died as a result of a pollutant building up in food chains. Methyl mercury was discharging from a factory in low concentration into the sea and as this pollutant passed through food chains it became more concentrated in the tissues of marine organisms until it reached toxic levels. Where 649 people died from eating fish and shellfish contaminated with mercury and 3500 people suffered from mercury poisoning.
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