In Minamata, Japan, people who have eaten fish suffer from a neurological disease. Medical experiments on cats have revealed mercury poisoning. These diseases are caused by discharges from a petrochemical plant into the sea.
Following the sinking of the tanker Torrey Canyon, an oil spill fell on the Breton coast. The population, armed with buckets, pumps and helped by the military, mobilized to clean the beaches invaded by oil slicks. The Minister of the Interior, Christian FOUCHET, went to see the disaster. The volunteers spread sawdust on the oil slicks so that they can form a chipboard that can be burned. Despite the scale of the disaster, the authorities estimate that the beaches will be cleaned up for the next holiday. Cleaning pink granite rocks is particularly difficult. Many birds have died as a result of this oil spill, but some can be saved after being washed of the hydrocarbon film.
A campaign to clean the beaches was launched in the Aquitaine region after the grounding of several hundred barrels. A company of the 31st engineer was requisitioned to help the firefighters, the Departmental Directorate of Equipment, the gendarmerie and civil protection in the recovery operations of the drums of chemicals to avoid any risk of intoxication and pollution. A layer of pollution was detected off Bayonne and Biarritz. The authorities await the consequences of future high tides.
A container lost by a cargo ship west of the Channel Islands during a storm, drifts into the Channel, without the national navy being able to secure it. A second container containing a toxic pesticide sank. The container ship Sherbro, which lost 80 containers, was diverted urgently to Brest to allow the unloading of the cargo having lost their moorings.
A huge area of plastic waste created by ocean currents has been discovered by scientists in the Atlantic Ocean near the Caribbean. Waste in all forms and sizes that, when they break down, create incidieous pollution because they are ingested by living marine organisms. A scientific expedition takes samples to warn of the dangers that threaten all ocean life. The journalist interviews Patrick DEIXONNE, expedition leader "7th continent", and another member of the expedition.
On 12 December 1999, the Maltese tanker chartered by Total Fina, the Erika, broke in two in a storm about 50 kilometres from the Breton tip. On the whole coast, from the Loire Atlantique to the island of Ré, the cleaning operations are in operation to get rid of the beaches of oil cakes and to protect the salt marshes and oyster farms. The journalist takes stock of the damage using aerial images of the oil spill and oil slicks.
In the port of Marseille, Pierre BARDINA, brings back to each dive all kinds of rusty objects lying at the bottom of the sea: bike, motorcycle, paint pot, shoes, stroller... All this waste was thrown into the Mediterranean by people living near the coast. Disgusted by the behaviour of his fellow citizens, the diver has become what we call a "garbage man".
Physicists sent by the International Atomic Agency are studying the impact of radioactive waste disposal in the Mediterranean Sea. Although the reality of the ecological and health impact is not yet precisely defined, physicists have nevertheless demonstrated that radioactivity is concentrated and interferes in the food chain. The concentration of radioactive products in marine, plant and animal organisms is between 100 and 1000 times higher than normal. Man, at the end of the food chain, will absorb a significant radiocativity.
Biologist Alain Bombard explains the problem of ocean pollution. The rivers have always brought soluble products to the sea, which is why the oceans are salty. The problem becomes serious when men start pouring sewage from sewers into streams. The self-purifying power of the sea will reach its limits in the face of increasing human activities and the expansion of coastal cities, as is the case in Marseille. Aerial views of river mouths and layers of pollution illustrate his point.
The INA Galaxy 
