The initial devastation of marine life and ecosystems stems from the powerful intake of water into the nuclear reactor. Marine life, ranging from endangered sea turtles and manatees down to delicate fish larvae and microscopic planktonic organisms vital to the ocean ecosystem, is sucked irresistibly into the reactor cooling system, a process known as entrainment. In contrast, the commercial fishing industry must submit to strict regulatory standards including fines and license suspension for illegal takes. The report notes that an equally huge volume of wastewater is then discharged at temperatures up to 25 degrees F hotter than the water into which it flows. Indigenous marine life suited to colder temperatures is consequently eliminated or, in the case of endemic fish, forced to move, disrupting delicately balanced ecosystems.
Species affected include endangered sea turtles, marine mammals, fish, and sea birds.
In addition, the heated water is discharged with such force that surrounding seabeds are often scoured to bare rock, leaving a virtual marine desert bereft of life on the ocean floor. Similarly, state water and wildlife authorities fall prey to nuclear industry pressure tactics and falsifications. In numerous incidents, nuclear utilities have falsified data and concealed and withheld information from environmental regulators that would have revealed the true extent of the environmental damages wrought by their reactor operations. In reality, the plant's operation had devastated marine ecosystems for miles up and down the coast and was responsible for the near obliteration of already threatened black and red abalone populations in the area. While nuclear utilities advertise themselves as environmentally friendly, in reality they are sacrificing the marine environment and its inhabitants on the altar of company profits.