Experts Say Chemical Pollution On The Great Barrier Reef Causing Animals Deformed And Dead

Illustration (Hanjoung Choi/Unsplash)

JAKARTA - An alarming number of toxic chemicals have been found in the waters of the Great Barrier Reef, Australia, which is in the Pacific Ocean, so the animal population in these waters is threatened.

Toxic substances such as paints, adhesives, antibiotics, and thousands of other chemicals cause serious damage to marine life, including animals that are both above and below water in the area.

"We are seeing an increase in more and more animals that are really sick. Most of our patients come from the Great Barrier Reef," said Jennie Gilbert, founder of the Cairns Turtle Rehabilitation Center in Australia, as quoted from Euronews.

The tortoise hatched with unexplained defects and abnormalities. He agrees with marine toxicologists that contaminants are the cause, when they enter the habitat of sea turtles.

Illustration (Daniel Pelaez Duque/Unsplash)

"People are taking antibiotics, people are taking heart drugs, people are taking diuretics and all of them are going overboard," Gilbert said.

A recent report by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and Griffith University calls for greater monitoring of pollutants on coral reefs.

Marine ecologists have previously found cardiac and kidney drugs, anti-fouling paints, and sealants in the blood of more than a thousand coastal green turtles. Altogether, turtles have 4,000 different chemical compounds in their bodies.

Dr. Jason van de Merwe of Griffith University, a marine ecologist and ecotoxicologist said the most worrying elements were substances that could not be identified.

Illustration (Wikimedia Commons/Ryan McMinds)

"It is very important for the public to know the potential health risks associated with chemical contamination of marine habitats and seafood," he explained.

"We want to see that includes drugs, heavy metals, other chemicals that we know are now accumulating," said Dr. Van De Merwe.

He added that these chemicals can also break down to form new compounds that are more toxic than the original chemical.

"We know very little about the toxicity of these chemicals themselves and about how dangerous they are when mixed," he concluded.