Top 10 Worst Ocean Pollution Sources

Nitrogen and phosphorus from farms create over 500 oceanic dead zones worldwide, including a 15,000 square kilometre hypoxic area in the Gulf of Mexico where virtually no marine life can survive.

Factories across Asia, Africa, and South America release heavy metals, solvents, and toxic chemicals directly into rivers that feed the ocean, with an estimated 80 percent of global wastewater discharged untreated.

An estimated 640,000 tonnes of fishing nets, lines, and traps are lost or abandoned in oceans each year, continuing to trap and kill marine animals for decades through indiscriminate "ghost fishing."

Beyond catastrophic spills like Deepwater Horizon, routine offshore operations release thousands of tonnes of oil and drilling chemicals annually through permitted discharges, chronic leaks, and ballast water.

Coastal cities worldwide discharge raw or partially treated sewage into the ocean, introducing pathogens, pharmaceuticals, and microplastics that contaminate shellfish beds and bathing waters.

A single load of synthetic laundry releases up to 700,000 microplastic fibres, making clothing the largest source of microplastic pollution in the ocean, with fibres found in Arctic ice and deep-sea sediments.

The global shipping fleet introduces invasive species via 10 billion tonnes of ballast water annually, while antifouling paints leach tributyltin and copper compounds toxic to marine organisms.

Antibiotics, hormones, antidepressants, and sunscreen chemicals are now detectable in ocean waters worldwide, disrupting marine animal reproduction and behaviour at concentrations previously considered negligible.

Emerging deep-sea mining for manganese nodules threatens to smother vast areas of abyssal seabed with sediment plumes, potentially devastating ecosystems that take centuries to recover in the planet's last unexplored frontier.

Nitrogen and phosphorus from farms create over 500 oceanic dead zones worldwide, including a 15,000 square kilometre hypoxic area in the Gulf of Mexico where virtually no marine life can survive.

Factories across Asia, Africa, and South America release heavy metals, solvents, and toxic chemicals directly into rivers that feed the ocean, with an estimated 80 percent of global wastewater discharged untreated.

An estimated 640,000 tonnes of fishing nets, lines, and traps are lost or abandoned in oceans each year, continuing to trap and kill marine animals for decades through indiscriminate "ghost fishing."

Beyond catastrophic spills like Deepwater Horizon, routine offshore operations release thousands of tonnes of oil and drilling chemicals annually through permitted discharges, chronic leaks, and ballast water.

Coastal cities worldwide discharge raw or partially treated sewage into the ocean, introducing pathogens, pharmaceuticals, and microplastics that contaminate shellfish beds and bathing waters.

A single load of synthetic laundry releases up to 700,000 microplastic fibres, making clothing the largest source of microplastic pollution in the ocean, with fibres found in Arctic ice and deep-sea sediments.

The global shipping fleet introduces invasive species via 10 billion tonnes of ballast water annually, while antifouling paints leach tributyltin and copper compounds toxic to marine organisms.

Antibiotics, hormones, antidepressants, and sunscreen chemicals are now detectable in ocean waters worldwide, disrupting marine animal reproduction and behaviour at concentrations previously considered negligible.

Emerging deep-sea mining for manganese nodules threatens to smother vast areas of abyssal seabed with sediment plumes, potentially devastating ecosystems that take centuries to recover in the planet's last unexplored frontier.