The sea is indispensable to life on earth and experiencing serious environmental problems today. Originally nature had the power to clean itself of pollutants to a certain degree. However, the amount of the pollutants discharged by human beings has reached a level which nature cannot cope with. The causes of marine pollution are variety, such as disposal of waste and oil spills, which have caused great and possibly irreversible damage to marine life and could cause extermination of marine life. To prevent the marine environment from further damage, some conventions on the Law of the Sea have been established and implemented effectively.
             In this paper, the causes and the effects of marine pollution will be firstly identified and discussed. Following this, the law of the sea reviews the overall problems. How to protect marine environment will be finally recommended.
             Vessel source pollution refers to pollution that comes from ships and has been estimated to comprise up to 40 percent of marine pollution (Kindt, 1986). It may result either because of an accident or because of the natural ways in which ships operate. Accidental vessel source pollution may involve the discharge of dangerous substances, which are transported by sea, including oil, radioactive materials, chemicals and hazardous wastes. Marine accidents potentially cause serious harm to coastal communities, fisheries, wildlife and the local ecology where is a spill takes place. Operational pollution, on the other hand, is caused by the manner in which ships operate. For instance, oil tankers traditionally washed their oil tanks and disposed of oily residues at sea, resulting in significant volumes of pollution. International law's solution to this particular problem has been to eliminate the need for such discharges through technical solutions and the provision of facilities near the shore so that these residues can be kept from entering the seas (Timagenis, 1980).
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