Where does the waste from the ship's toilet go? Is it discharged directly into the sea to feed the fish?

If you were to ask which is the most polluted river in the world, I believe most people would nominate the Ganges. The pollution of the Ganges is also significantly different from that of other rivers because the most unacceptable thing about it is "fecal pollution."

The Ganges River in India is seriously polluted

As people continue to discharge excrement into the Ganges, there are more than 100,000 E. coli in every 100 ml of Ganges water.

So, can the ocean, which is wider than the Ganges, accept all human excrement? After all, there are many ships operating on the sea, and people living in them need to excrete. In this case, where does the feces in the toilets of large ships go? Is it discharged directly into the sea to feed the fish?

Clean and clear ocean

How to deal with excrement in large ships?

More than 70% of the earth's surface is covered by the ocean, so since the emergence of ships, people across the sea have been able to meet. Nowadays, ships have become a means of transportation that people often use, especially many large ships will sail for a long time after setting sail. The ship is equipped with various necessities and facilities, and toilets are indispensable.

However, since there are so many people on the large ship, and everyone has the need to defecate every day, the "bearing pressure" of the toilet on the large ship is still very large.

Cruise ship bathroom with everything you need

So how do large ships that sail on the sea for a long time deal with the "overflowing" excrement? Do they discharge it directly into the ocean?

Some people may think that the ocean is much larger than the Ganges, so it would be harmless to release the excrement directly. But in fact, there are so many ships now, and if everyone does this, the ocean may become the second Ganges.

The number of cruise tourists in our country alone is already very large.

Therefore, the excrement in the toilet of a large ship cannot be discharged directly into the sea, because the germs carried in human excrement are often very feared by marine life. And no one wants to see such an "eye-catching" scene. After all, seafood is still very important to humans. If the fish eaten by people on land are fed by the excrement of people on large ships, it is indeed unacceptable.

Therefore, the excrement in the ship's toilet needs to be specially treated before it can be discharged into the sea. And this treatment is quite strict, not only disinfection but also degradation is required, at least to ensure that there are no solid floating objects, after all, this kind of degradation is very difficult.

There are corresponding sewage treatment systems inside the ship.

In short, the toilets on large ships are not like green trains, which directly discharge excrement into the ocean, but have to go through special treatment. Under strict purification standards, the impact of human excrement on the ocean will be greatly reduced. Of course, it is not ruled out that some people will secretly discharge during the voyage, but what they take the opportunity to discharge is often not excrement, but some other wastewater.

Waste management system for cruise ships

Illegal discharge of sewage from ships

In the process of sailing, in addition to a large amount of excrement, there are also a lot of domestic sewage, equipment sewage, etc. that need to be discharged. The treatment of these sewage is often more demanding than excrement, and the cost of purification is also relatively high.

Therefore, many ships think they can escape this responsibility and reduce related expenses. However, this behavior is very harmful to the marine ecology. If everyone tries to take advantage of this loophole, it will definitely cause unimaginable consequences.

The ocean is an important part of the earth's ecology

Some people may say that the sea has a self-purification function, and this little bit of pollution is nothing to it, and it will be degraded after a period of time. But in fact, the purification capacity of seawater is limited, especially when people discharge pollutants without restraint, the ocean has become increasingly "overwhelmed".

Therefore, in order to better protect the marine ecology, all countries have established a control mechanism for pollutant discharge into the sea. Even ships sailing on the sea must abide by relevant regulations and must not intentionally discharge pollutants on the restricted list into the ocean. If found, the polluter will be convicted based on the amount of pollutants discharged and receive the appropriate punishment.

my country's marine ecological environment has improved

For example, at the end of the last century, a foreign cargo ship named "Far East Victory" discharged waste oil in the waters near the northern French city of Tougai. After being discovered, the captain of the cargo ship was fined 600,000 francs. The relevant verdict was also announced in French newspapers, which is enough to show the intolerance of "malicious discharge" incidents.

So, if the ocean relies on its own self-purification ability, how can it be purified? What kind of pollution consequences have humans caused by continuously discharging pollutants into the ocean over the years?

Oil-polluted sea

Impact of sewage discharge on the ocean

The ocean itself has a self-purification system, and because there are so many organisms in it, it forms a huge ecosystem. The microorganisms in this ecosystem act as important "decomposers", basically working all year round.

However, the ocean's self-purification ability focuses more on waste generated in the ecological cycle, such as fish feces, etc. Therefore, when external pollution enters, it will cause the concentration of harmful substances in the water to be too high, making it impossible for physical and chemical reactions to continue. In this case, it may not take long for the vast ocean to be transformed into a "stinking ditch" by humans.

Schematic diagram of the ocean ecosystem

It is worth mentioning that this type of pollution discharge not only comes from ships, but also from some coastal cities that discharge pollutants generated on land into the sea, polluting the coastal environment.

When we look back at history, we will find that humans have been discharging pollutants into the ocean for a long time, and the initial discharges were all solid wastes, with the main treatment methods including incineration at sea and dumping in the deep sea.

Data shows that the United States dumped most of its construction waste, sludge, waste acid and various hazardous substances into the ocean from 1899 to 1965. In the early 1960s, it began dumping weak radioactive waste into the ocean. In 1968 alone, the United States dumped more than 48 million tons of various solid wastes into the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico.

A sea full of garbage

It can be seen that human beings have been polluting the ocean for a long time, and this situation has become more serious with the progress of industrialization. As human beings' demand for oil resources increases, offshore oil extraction has become a very normal thing, and there are occasional accidents in the extraction process, such as leakage, etc. In this case, oil will pollute the seawater.

We don’t live in the ocean, so we don’t care. But oil pollution is fatal to marine life, because the oil film will move with the ocean currents, constantly consuming the dissolved oxygen in the seawater, and eventually killing marine animals. Even seabirds are not immune, and their wings are stuck by the sticky oil.

A flightless pelican covered in oil

Therefore, when people do not control the discharge of pollutants into the ocean, many organisms in the sea are affected, their production has dropped significantly, and the harmful substances in their bodies have increased significantly. Some sea areas have even become "fishless areas" due to years of pollution, such as the Baltic Sea.

The above mainly refers to the impact of marine pollution discharge on organisms in the marine ecosystem. It seems to be harmless to humans, but the potential crisis has already existed, but humans have not noticed it.

Global marine fish population status diagram

Potential hazards caused by sewage discharge activities

Take the waste treatment of large ship toilets discussed in the previous article for example. There are many pathogens in these wastes, which can infect fish in the ocean. And when people mention the fish raised in the Ganges "sewage", they will express disgust. If they knew that the fish in the ocean also grew up eating waste, they probably would not eat seafood anymore.

Of course, it is not just excrement, the impact of various pollutants is more serious, such as the emission of large amounts of mercury, which can cause irreversible damage to the human body. The problem is that since our naked eyes cannot see this kind of pollution in the water, it is difficult to detect it in time.

Mercury will continue to accumulate along the food chain

Logically speaking, we should wake up in time and exercise restraint, but in fact there are always people who are very selfish and unwilling to take on relevant responsibilities.

Don’t let the ocean become a garbage can for humans

For example, Japan has previously ignored the opposition of many countries and insisted on discharging nuclear waste water into the ocean. On the surface, this matter only polluted a certain area of ​​the sea, but in fact, the heavy metal pollution has long been involved in the material cycle, and will pollute various sea areas with the ocean currents, completely turning the ocean into a "big dye vat". When that day comes, no one will be spared.

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