The extra credit - Essay Example

Negative Externalities: Sea Pollution A negative externality is the cost that a third party suffers due to aneconomic transaction also known as spillover effects. The third parties refer to individuals, property, organization, or any resource that does not belong to the producer or consumer. Some examples of externalities are wastes that are due to consumption of products and others such as the carbon emissions resulting from factories arise from production. Most of the externalities occur in resources owned by no one, in particular, such as oceans and big water bodies. In such cases, ships may pollute the waters without fear of prosecution, as no one will take the initiative to take them to court. There are negative effects of these externalities in production for instance; industrial pollution causes the marginal social cost (MSC) to curve higher than the private marginal cost (MPC). The externality for this discussion will be sea pollution by water vessels.
Sea pollution occurs due to oil spillage from ships and sea vessels on transit, especially in cases of accidents or leakage. Other forms of pollution by the sea vessels are from discharging domestic wastes into the sea when the vessel is in transit. Passenger ships are the main dischargers of domestic effluent into the sea such as kitchen wastes and waste from sanitation areas. Other pollution may be from chemicals, and garbage from the sea vessel that find their way into the water during transit. Scrapping of old ships on beaches may also pollute the water is the scrap metal, paints, and pieces find their way into the water. However, most of the sea pollution comes from people living near the beaches, when they dispose chemicals, soil, oil, and rubbish into the sea. Disposal of Bunker oil from cargo ship is very dangerous and toxic to the sea creatures and is very difficult to clean sea pollution is bad for the society as it destroys the marine ecosystem by killing the aquatic plants organisms.
There are some policies to control sea pollution in various countries such as government intervention through regulations, which include taxing polluters and forcing the polluters to compensate the affected. International regulations to prevent marine pollution from ships aim at preventing and lowering ship pollution. Port waste management under Merchant Shipping and Fishing Vessels highlights the requirements for all vessels to give a prior notice to the port on the waste onboard. The vessels should also offload the waste at the port and pay for waste discharge facilities. All ships of between 150 and 400 gross tons and above should complete an oil record book whenever there is cleaning of fuel tanks, disposal of sludge, overboard bilge water and is charging ballast. Fish vessels should minimize the loss of fishing gear in the sea and always dispose of the garbage ashore. Port waste management should be a combined effort from the sea users and the port authority for effectiveness.
Some of the policies might not prevent pollution of water completely, and it is the responsibility of the users to dispose the wastes in the right places. Some of the policies involve the international community, and each country should always ensure that it protects its waters and minimize pollution. Sea pollution can cause many damages even to humans especially when they consume fish from polluted sources. Everybody has the responsibility to control pollution of any kind by avoiding disposing garbage and another form of wastes into the water.
Works Cited
Gov.uk,. Prevent Pollution And Reduce Harmful Emissions At Sea - Detailed Guidance - GOV.UK. N.p., 2012. Web. 20 May 2015. Read More