PLN 24

"Chairman: Ship's paint brings instant death to Great Barrier Reef" from CNN

This article describes how a Chinese ship named 'Shen Neng 1' has an anti-fouling paint which has been scraped into the ocean off the coast of Australia. anti-fouling paint is paint that goes onto ships which prevents barnacles from sticking onto ships. The paint was scraped off of the hull of the ship from the Australian Great Barrier Reef which put the paint into the sea. Once the paint is into open water, it begins killing corals, affecting marine life. If coral is being killed in large numbers than it could affect the food chain long term. The coral obtains a lot of it's energy from photosynthesis and is eaten by fish in order to survive. If the coral population is decreased then this could affect the fish population and other marine life and so on and so on. Although anti-fouling paint can increase the speed at which a boat goes, it is not worth the potential risk it is putting on life in the water. Also this paint is supposed to increase the durability of the ship but ships are already durable enough. I believe this is evidence enough to the United Nations to do something about it. The United Nations should ban this anti-fouling paint because it affects marine life in an extreme way in which results are fatal. If China continues to use this anti-fouling paint, maybe in more quantities, then this could affect other marine life and not only coral. Overall, anti-fouling paint has more cons then it does pros which is why it should be unusable.