Marine ​Conservation
How can you save our seas and waterways?

The Wave systems such as bilge filters and grey water systems presented on this website are designed to reduce the impact leisure and commercial boating have on the marine environment, the seas, oceans, inland waterways and lakes that boats sail on.

Installing this kind of system will mitigate that impact but there is so much more that we can all do and the following articles and links on this page may raise awareness and give you guidance to a better practice while operating your craft. 

Scientific research suggests oily bilge water could be harming marine ecosystems and coastal economies.

Bilge dumping is the illegal release of untreated oily wastewater from a vessel’s lower hull. This wastewater, or bilge water, appears as an oil slick in the ocean, which eventually disperses and can migrate to vulnerable coastlines.  
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Vessel bilge dumping incidents typically receive less attention than large oil spills: they are much smaller-scale events, but occur more frequently and potentially can have a significant cumulative effect. 
 
https://skytruth.org/2020/03/bilge-dumping-at-sea-why-should-i-care/

Environmental impact of grey water discharge from ships in the Baltic Sea

Today, the Baltic Sea is the only designated special area under MARPOL Annex IV with respect to sewage discharge and nutrient content. In this area, passenger ships' sewage must be treated according to the IMO standards.

​However another waste is also created, grey water is the drainage from dishwater, shower, laundry, bath and washbasin drains. Discharge of grey water is not regulated by the IMO, but grey water poses an environmental threat since, in addition to bacteria and organic matter, it contains contaminants (i.e. such as chemicals at higher concentrations than if they had occurred naturally), as well as nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorous) leading to eutrophication. 
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0025326X20300096

Microplastics generated when opening plastic packaging

New research has found that microplastics can be generated by simple tasks in our daily lives such as by cutting with knives or scissors, tearing with hands or twisting manually, to open plastics containers/bags/tapes/caps.

These processes can generate about 0.46–250 microplastic/cm. This amount is dependent on the conditions such as stiffness, thickness, anisotropy, the density of plastic materials and the size of microplastics.

This finding sends an important warning, that we must be careful when opening plastic packaging and reduce our consumption and use of plastic products, if we are concerned about microplastics and care about reducing microplastics contamination.
​https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-61146-4