Main ecological problems in sea transport general characterization of environmental problems

The maritime shipping industry, as a crucial component of the global economic system, is actively involved in solving the major global problems of our time, as more than 80% of international trade is carried out by sea. Growth in the number of ships requires enhanced measures to improve environmental performance and safety of navigation Throughout the history of navigation, ships have been discharging everything that was considered unnecessary into the ocean: food waste, cargo residues, garbage, polluted water, etc. It was believed that the endless and deep sea would not be harmed by this. However, the possibilities of ocean self-cleaning are not unlimited, while the scale of marine activities is constantly growing. In this article, the authors review and systematize the analytical assessments of domestic and international experts on the problem of pollution and climate change, which requires immediate measures to reduce the negative impact of maritime transport on the environment. The purpose of the article is to outline the issues of main environmental problems in maritime transport and to summarize the results of published scientific research. We emphasize that environmental safety issues include the systematization of the constituent factors of marine pollution by oil, chemicals and other toxic substances, greenhouse gas emissions, loss of fuel tanks during accidents, etc. In our opinion, the identification and classification of the main causes of the impact of negative factors of maritime transport operation on the ecology and the state of the environment with a view to further reducing or eliminating this impact is an important topical problem of our time. To achieve the purpose of the study, theoretical methods of systematization, formalization, statistical processing and generalization of environmental monitoring data of domestic and world scientists were used. It is noted that scientific research in this area is considered to be the most promising.