Ocean habitats are being destroyed everyday due to plastic pollution. Nearly 90% of all liter is plastic. This deadly plastic end up in the ocean and then multiplies every year which results in the deaths of nearly 100,000 forms of marine mammals as well as one million sea birds. We as human beings need to reduce and remove our oceans plastic. Albatross chicks are sea birds that live in the ocean.
Every year 500,000 chicks are born 200,000 will die due to plastic pollution. These chicks do not stand a chance based upon their diet which consists of a regurgitated substance from their parent of their necessary nutrition intakes. The plastic that is picked up from their parents enter into the young chicks causing starvation and dehydration because the plastics’ disturbance to the body’s functions. Albatross chicks are not the only marine birds that are suffering seagulls, penguins and many other birds receive the same fate as well.
Penguins for example are swimmers therefore when they swim into a land fill of plastic and most become ensnared or entangled, this causes suffocation and death. Marine mammals are spread far and wide and they all share the common enemy of plastic. The main marine mammal that is most impacted is the seal. A free spirited animal who loves to frolic in the waves and call out to its friends dies on a daily basis because of ocean plastics. It is not the seals’ fault because their natural habitats are slowly being overpopulated with plastic. The main problem seals face is the fact that they have nowhere to turn so plastic becomes natural part of their habitat when it is not. Seals eat the plastic they mistake for their natural diet of fish and soon create the same ideal ending as the albatross chicks ...
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...ere passed around the time of 1987 they were not enforced. In present day these laws are enforced more because of knowledge that has been gathered based on the conclusion for the future studies show that it is mandatory that we reduce the amount of plastic in the oceans because the potential of causing the extinction of marine life as well and therefore limiting one of most highly anticipated and beneficial industries and life sustaining products.
In conclusion plastic is harming our ocean more rapidly than ever. The marine life that is effected are albatross chicks a form of marine bird as well as marine mammals such as seals and whales. Plastic in the oceans can be lessened through the process of reusing, reducing and recycling. The government is also doing their part to stop plastic from entering the oceans. Stop harming our oceans, remove plastic pollution.
Which means their obviously bad for the aquatic marine life environment & are cause many different forms of damage for them & us as one. On p.g. 23 of The New York Times upfront magazine “Birds,fish, sea turtles, & others are getting tangled in plastic bags or mistake them for food & choke”. Someone else might argue that they could the plastic bags in landfills instead of oceans. But that counter- argument is flawed because you’re just polluting by burning plastic which is bad on our part we’re not doing our part to support & taking care of the earth. Plastic in the ocean isn't just bad for plants & animals but for humans too because of the food chain some of us eat animals as a meat source such as aqua marine life like fish. If the fishermen catch fish that have been eating plastic then it's in our food supply if we eat that fish it's gonna be bad for us so many will end up getting sick from the plastic inside of the fish then what will we do our aqua marine food supply will go down the drain we couldn’t eat the fish since it's basically contaminated with plastic that we’re dumping there instead of trying to fix it & getting rid of plastic bags for good for the good of the earth. We’re causing damage towards the earth by dumping all that plastic into the ocean which damages our water supply it’ll poison us although we clean the water it depends on how big the plastic particles are, it’ll make us sick & sense it’s been lying in the oceans could bring in new pathogens &
Pollution of the earth is a major limiting factor to the abundance of life on earth. Pollution of all kinds can kill wildlife, causes habitat degradation or destruction, create navigational hazards, and even destroy economies and human health (https://marinedebris.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/MD_Tracker_App_Flyer_FINAL.pdf). These effects, though, are most evident in marine environments. The dumping of waste, especially plastics, causes severe stress to the world’s oceans, rivers, lakes, and ponds. While scientist cannot know the exact extent that pollution is affecting the environment, one way in which scientists can go about determining the pollution of a region is Citizen Science, as Dickerson
According to a study conducted by the University of British Columbia, approximately “93 percent of beach fulmars (migratory seabirds related to the albatross) had bellies full of plastic, with one even having upwards of “454 pieces of plastic in its stomach” alone. (Source B) Similarly, in a 2011 International Coastal Clean-up, there were 964244 plastic bags found in the ocean, each having the potential to kill wildlife (Source C). A major reason as to why plastic bags are so hazardous to animal health is the fact that they have no biodegradable capabilities, meaning that instead breaking down into organic materials, plastic takes 500 to 1000 years to simply photodegrade, fragmenting into smaller pieces but not presenting any less danger (Source F). As these pieces become smaller, making it easier for any animal life, marine or not, to ingest it and suffocate as a result of the blockage. This is when the implementation of a tax on plastic bags could become extremely useful as a method of regulation and
For an Albatross bird living on Midway island, life is centered around breeding, eating, sleeping, pooping, and repeating. However, with increased levels of plastic accumulating in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch near their island home, staying alive has become a more difficult task than nature intended. This is because parent Albatross often pick up plastic from the garbage patch and feed it to their young after mistaking it for food. Baby Albatross cannot pass plastic through their systems or regurgitate it, so after consuming too much, they often die either from starvation when their plastic filled stomachs mistakenly send signals to their brains communicating that they are full, or from internal injury due to the sharp edges of some pieces
Peregrine Falcon status is special concern as this species was affected mainly by DDT (dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane) and PCBs (poly chlorinated biphenyls). DDT was used in 1950s and 1960s to control populations of insects. PCBs were previously used by industries. The adult Peregrine Falcon had high amount of DDT and PCBs by the process of bioaccumulation (when they eat more and more prey DDT was build up over time) and biomagnification (as falcon is the apex predator /top predator – The concentration of DDT progressively increases in food chains from bottom to top tropic level). Affected birds produced thin shell eggs that usually broke in the nest. This led the Falcons to produce lesser number of young birds than usual.
Recently, an uninhabited island in the South Pacific Ocean was found to be polluted with 38 million pieces of plastic that had been carried over by currents (Wang, “No one lives on this remote Pacific island”). The island, dubbed ‘trash island’, is home to diverse animal populations that have all been devastated by the pollution. On the beach, hundreds of birds were seen dead by reporters and scientists. When analyzed, the primary cause of death turned out to be consumption of plastic. When animals ingest plastic, it clogs their stomach and poisons their body with toxic chemicals. These toxic chemicals cause an array of issues, such as reproductive and endocrine problems. Eventually, this leads to death (Knoblauch, “The environmental toll of plastics”). But due to the nature of plastics, it can take hundreds or even thousands of years to completely degrade, meaning that as plastic pollution continues to build up, more places like ‘trash island’ will be discovered. According to conservation scientist Alex Bond, “…[The island] is just an indicator of what’s floating around out there” (Wang, “No one lives on this remote Pacific
...stic breaks down into smaller bits that are not as easy to spot. These small pieces are then consumed by the oceans small organisms that are also the bottom of the oceans food chain. Once it enters the ocean food chain, plastic and its toxins can then be transferred to humans through the ingestion of seafood. The Midway Islands in the Pacific Ocean are home to many different bird species including the world’s largest number of albatrosses. Plastic items and waste materials are washed onto shore and mistaken by the birds as food. A wildlife manager by the name of Matt Brown cut open a dead albatross and found the contents of its stomach to have a large amount of plastic items including a part of a toothbrush, a bottle cap, and pieces of an old fishing net. Brown agrees with most scientists that it is going to take effort from society as a whole to fix this issue.
Every time we throw away a plastic bottle, drive our cars, and even burn those millions of fossil fuels to operate all those huge factories, there is a chance it will pollute the ocean and eventually affect the way we live. There should be stricter laws regulating human pollution, in order to protect our ocean ecosystem. The ocean is an abundant source of life. It is home to thousands of different creatures, provides a great source of food, and provides the earth with about one half of the oxygen needed to sustain life. National Geographic: Pollution, especially plastic, is a catastrophic problem.
Throughout the country one might find themselves seeing a plastic bag floating around or even stuck in a tree. This is a problem that most want to eliminate. A topic that Mangu-Ward writes about is the problem of plastic bags in marine life and other wildlife. For people the thought of animals dying angers them. These decisions that people are making currently are emotional decision as Mangu-Ward describes them. Many marine life animals have died from the cause of littering of the plastic bag. Mangu-Ward writes, “plastic bags make up 3.8 percent of beach litter”. Finding fish, turtles, and many more marine and wildlife animals with plastic bags either suck around their necks or in their throats is something that many do not like to see or hear. This evidence can also be supported when Mangu-Ward writes, “1 million birds and 100,000 marine mammals and sea turtles die each year from eating or getting entangled in plastic”. Mangu-Ward is currently giving evidence that plastic bags are bad for the
As the world’s population rises, our negative impact on the world does as well, specifically on our oceans. Intended to make our lives easier day to day, we have engineered and produced a durable, lightweight material known as Plastic. Plastic materials include plastic bags and bottles, fishing nets, and six pack rings. In 1972, the Hartford Courant newspaper published an article, in which two scientists, Edward J. Carpenter and K.S. Smith Jr. expressed their genuine concerns, “floating pieces of plastic, a new form of pollution, are turning up in mid-ocean in substantial concentrations that might eventually disturb the marine ecology” (“Plastic Pollution Newest Threat to Ocean Ecology”).
From all of the pollution in the ocean sea turtles suffer from toxic metals poisoning, this affects the liver and the kidneys of the turtle. If sea turtles get ill from this they become more vulnerable to pray and they become lost which causes them to bump into boats. Even though plastic bags and other plastic like items break down from sunlight the molecules from the plastic will still be there just broken down into smaller pieces. All of the small particles from the plastic coalesce in the oceans currents making it go down in rivers that lead to the ocean where it can hard marine life such as sea turtles. When this happens sea turtles consume the plastic not knowing the dangers behind it.
When the plastics enter into the oceans, some young fish are drawn to them, and seem to think that it is food, and they end up preferring the plastic to their natural food sources which eventually starves them before they can reach their reproductive age. The microplastics have been found in the bodies of whales, seabirds, and fish. Marine organisms ingest the particles, but they are unable to digest them, this leads to a buildup in the digestive tracts of the animals which hinders the microorganisms from taking in more food, and it diminishes the organisms feeding stimulus which can lead to starvation (Fossi, M. C, 2014). Studies have proved that the physiological consequences of crabs taking up polystyrene microspheres through their gills are minimal. When the crabs inhale polystyrene microspheres into their gills chambers, it leads to a small but temporary change in ion regulation and oxygen
Using plastic bags are second nature to people in this day and age. Warner acknowledges, “Much to the dismay of the environmentally conscious citizens worldwide, the ubiquity of the free plastic carryout bag has bred nonchalant consumers who take this modern convenience for granted” (646). Although some people are conscious about the environment, people strive more for convenience and do not think about the impacts using bags have not only on the environment, but on themselves as well. If something is bad for the environment, it will alternatively be bad for humans as well. When plastic bags are exposed to the sun from being littered all around, the ultraviolet rays cause the substances of plastic bags to weaken. After the substances weaken, the substances become invisible to the naked eye. The substances that are no longer able to be seen are toxic to humans (Warner 649). As a result of plastic bags being littered around, animals consume plastic bags. This is negatively affects humans because animals are often consumed. When humans consume animals like, fish, there can be plastic in the fish’s belly, which then transfers to the humans and this poses a concern for human’s health. Humans are negatively affected by plastic bags because of the toxic chemicals in plastic bags, as well as, consuming animals with plastic in their
Although plastic bags appear to be fragile and light, their negative environmental effect is devastating. Plastic bags may cause large amounts of pollution in every step of their limited life cycle, from the extraction of raw materials, production, transportation, and recycling or disposal. Plastic bags can be defined as the most damaging form of environmental pollution. They can have a damaging effect on marine animals and wildlife in addition to the aesthetic effects on beaches, parks, and trees. Plastic bags are potentially one of the main causes of death to marine animals (Harbor keepers,2008). Up to one hundred thousand marine animals or more die each year from eating plastic bags which are mistaken for food. This can result in blocking the animal’s intestines and possibly lead to the animal’s death. Another possible situation is that wildlife, such as birds, can get tangled in plastic bags causing choking and immobility, which may eventually lead to death. (Senior, 2008) and (Citizen Campaign, 2010). In other situations, after plastic bags photo degrade they remain toxic and could be eaten by fish, shellfish or any other marine life and survive this allows the toxins to enter our food chain through bioaccumulation (Puget Soundkeeper Alliance, 2011).
Research from the University of California San Diego Scripps Institution of Oceanography said that species in the ocean consume a projected 12,000 to 24,000 tons of plastic every year in the Pacific Ocean (Nall, 2014). Pollution of recyclable materials in the oceans is one of the leading causes of why some marine species are nearing extinction. Many authors of articles and books analyzing this topic tend to agree that pollution of our oceans is a problem. The future of this problem is where their ideas tend to differ. The following four literature reviews attempt to demonstrate and support my belief that pollution is getting worse in the ocean and more marine life ecosystems are being affected, but there are things that we as humans can do to change this. Imagine a world where we didn’t have to constantly worry about the vicious cycle of humans affecting animals and then animals in turn affecting us through consumption.