Sometimes washing up on beaches in the form of used syringes, other times hidden in the belly of a fish, toxic contamination—the inescapable consequence of toxic wastes flowing or being dumped into the ocean—is a form of pollution found off all coastlines throughout the industrialized world. This program looks at some of the sources of this pollution: industrial effluents, by-products, and waste, stormwater run-off from land treated with herbicides, motor oil slicks left by automotive traffic, and, of course, sewage and toxic waste. It also shows some of the consequences: polluted beaches in New Jersey, 6,000 Baltic seals dead of a viral epidemic engendered by dioxin, English sole in Puget Sound inedible because of liver cancer traceable to motor oil and automobile exhaust fumes. The program is a loud cry of warning, with detailed documentation for proof, that the opportunities for remedial action are growing rapidly slimmer. Says Swedish marine biologist Lars Azelius, "This time it was seals; next time it could be the people living along the coast." (56 minutes)