Although intertidal and shallow water subtidal communities are most sensitive to oil spills, bottom organisms are also affected. Volatile components of an oil spill eventually evaporate into the air, leaving heavier tars behind which forms into tar balls. These balls fall to the bottom and may be assimilated by bottom organisms or incorporated into sediments. There are many methods to contain and clean up an oil spill, however, sometimes they are dangerous and damageful. Detergents used to disperse oil are especially harmful to living things.
Some dangerous metals being introduced into the ocean are mercury, lead, and copper.
Mercury and lead poisoning cause brain damage and behavioral disturbances in children. Copper is also dangerous to marine organisms, it has been used in marine anti-fouling paints. Coal combustion, electric utilities, steel and iron manufacturing, fuel oils, fuel additives, and incineration of urban refuse are the major sources of oceanic and atmospheric contamination by heavy metals. Heavy metal contaminated runoff from the land, rain of pollutants from the air, and fallout from shipwrecks pollute the ocean with dangerous metals. Many different synthetic organic chemicals enter the ocean and become incorporated into organisms.