Waste disposal in the ocean

Man has long used the ocean as a dumping ground for municipal and industrial wastes. Viewed as a whole, the dilution capacity of the ocean is surely enormous, and it may seem to a newcomer to the subject that a ‘water pollution’ problem can hardly exist. Because chemical, physical and biological processes progressively degrade and transform most discharged materials and assimilate them into naturally occurring material cycles, one might conclude that the global ocean is indeed an ideal receiving environment for waste effluents (excepting highly stable and persistent materials).