Pollution in coastal waters is quickly becoming a conspicuous problem
throughout the world and the coastal areas of Pakistan are also included in severely
affected and therefore no exception. Anthropogenic activities are generally accountable
for the deprivation of the marine environment along with their resources across the
ocean bodies. The oceans economy not only offers significant development
opportunities but also raise some challenges. Not only marine sources, the land-based
sources are the prominent contributor of pollution as add in the pollution through direct
and indirect wastes discharge as well as effluents in the adjacent coastal waters from
untreated domestic and industrial sources. In this chapter, the magnitude of pollution
(organic and inorganic) in coastal environments of Pakistan was discussed including
plastic pollution as in recent days, it’s a hot issue and a detailed topic itself. The
weathering material, river runoff, industrial and domestic waste water enter through
different channels and take part in coastal pollution. Most of the pollutants like
pesticides, herbicides, heavy metals and macro-nutrients, presented intensification in a
marine environment. Nutrient dynamics and their cycling influence the process of
eutrophication in the adjacent coastal waters and an enrichment of macro-nutrients in
coastal waters reveals an increment in the explosion frequency of harmful algal blooms
were reported. The animal manure, sewage treatment, runoff of fertilizers, storm water
runoff, plant discharges, and power plant emissions, and failing septic tanks are the
primary sources of nutrient pollution. The algal blooms are responsible to produce algal
toxins or red-tide toxins and these naturally-derived toxins harm the organisms,
including humans. These bloom toxins initially contaminated the fish or seafood
species, then responsible for significant loss of fish and shellfish species and ultimately
economy damage.
Keywords: Marine Environment, Coastal Pollution, Nutrient Dynamics, Heavy
metal Contamination, Pollution Impacts.