Can you imagine an ocean full of trash and plastic drifting effortlessly through the water? Sea creatures are mistaking the trash as food and eating it, consequently they are shortly after dying from consuming too much of the detritus. The marine life is suffering because their home is always full of trash, therefore it’s being contaminated. Can this really happen to the environment around us? Have people ever thought about this horrible problem and wanted to do something to stop it? This is what our world is facing right now. Progressively debris is ending up in the water, harming the beautiful blue ocean in addition to killing the sea life. No one is thinking about where their trash is going and how much it’s harming the innocent marine …show more content…
According to the article Ocean Pollution Causes, “Back in 1975, the National Academy of Sciences estimated that about 14 billion pounds of garbage was being dumped into the ocean every year. That's more than 1.5 million pounds per hour, with an estimated one third possibly contributed by the United States.” This strongly proves that a great deal of our trash that isn’t disposed of properly ends up in the ocean and most of it is possibly from the U.S. There is a profound amount of trash floating in the ocean. Many unusual objects have ended up the water. For instance, plastic bags/bottles, balloons, glass bottles, shoes, packaging material, cigarettes, beverage cans, food wrappers, as well as an exceedingly amount of other types of plastic. An immense amount of garbage is just drifting in the ocean that no one knows about. The trash floating in the ocean is way too much to count. One question is where does all the trash go once it’s in the …show more content…
For the reason of sewage some places aren’t even safe to swim in the water anymore. For instance, in seawifs.gsfa.nasa.gov it states, “Around the world, untreated sewage flows into coastal waters, carrying organic waste and nutrients that can lead to oxygen depletion, as well as disease-causing bacteria and parasites that require closing beaches and shellfish beds.” This explains that when sewage flows into the waters, it carries certain nutrients and diseases that have harmful effects on the environment. When sewage gets into the water, it transfers viral hepatitis, cholera, typhoid fever, and a variation of stomach and intestinal diseases. Sewage is not only harmful to the marine life, but also to you as well. In the passage Raw Sewage it states, “In 1993, beaches were temporarily closed, or advisories against swimming were issued, over 2400 times in the U.S., usually because of high levels of bacteria.” This means that in some places they had to close the beach because the sewage problem got so bad and could cause injurious. Sewage problems are a major cause of the overabundance nitrogen in the American estuaries (Raw Sewage). This elucidates that sewage can be very harmful for your own body and health as well as the well-being of the sea life. As you have read ocean pollution has been going on for awhile and has been very
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 &
Do you know that people are polluting oceans in so many ways, and what we are doing about it. First, my evidence shows that two billion people within thirty miles of the coast create 100 million metric tons of coastal plastic waste (Doc.1). In my own words, this evidence show that all this pollution is really harmful to ocean creatures and us. More evidence is that the North Pacific Gyre has collected lots of these pollutants, so it is nicknamed the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (O.I.). This shows how we are polluting the oceans. My next evidence shows that a Beach Act was passed in 2000 saying the EPA or the Environmental Protection Agency will help states test and monitor coastal water pollution to protect swimmers (Doc.2). This evidence
Source 4: A few reasons why beach pollution is happening is because Trash and other materials that beaches rivers, bays, estuaries and oceans eventually wash up on our beaches. It includes plastic bags, bottles and cans, cigarette filters, bottle caps, and lids.Any trash that is not thrown away and is just thrown in the beach and is in the sand can eventually go into the beach and make the water dirty.A lot of people just throw the trash in the water because they do not care.Some people are too lazy to go throw it away in the trash can.
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which is sometimes referred to as the Eastern Pacific Garbage Patch and the Pacific Trash Vortex is a floating patch of garbage that has collected in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, which is located in the middle of two high-pressure areas between Hawaii and California. The majority of the garbage, which is also called marine debris, in the patch is plastic, but items made from other materials such as glass and rubber are also present. Though the garbage patch is too large and goes too deep under the surface of the ocean for scientists to determine exactly how much garbage is in it, they have collected up to 750,000 bits of plastic one square kilometer (CITE). This sort of debris floating around in the ocean is dangerous for several reasons. One important reason is that marine animals mistake some of the garbage, especially plastics, for food (CITE). Another reason that the floating debris is so dangerous is because it can block sunlight from reaching deeper levels of the ocean, and thus, it removes the energy source for many autotrophs like alga...
"An Ocean Of Trash." Scholastic Action 33.12 (2010): 16. MasterFILE Complete. Web. 31 Jan. 2014.
The ocean is an abundant source of life. It is home to thousand 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. Ironically plastic, which is a material designed to last forever is generally used for things we tend to throw away. Every year about one hundred to two hundred billion pounds of plastic are manufactured. Only 31% of that plastic is actually recycled. Biomass packaging estimates 10% of that plastic ends up in the ocean annually. About 20% of it coming from ships and other platforms, and the other 80% coming from land derived sources, such as international garbage dumping, winds or tides either way it finds its way to the ocean.(Biomass Packaging Co., et al)
... things that to be recycled can be and the things that need to be thrown out can be done to. There are organizations out there that are fighting things like this. They want to make sure that all of the animals that live in the water our safe from people who don’t care about anything but them self’s and throw things into storm drains or even right into the lake. Oceana is one of the organizations that are fighting against this. The government needs to take a step into this and help out. They pay to keep the war going. They also need to start funding money so that originations like Oceana can do whatever they need to clean this problem up. If people don’t take a stand soon this could turn into a bigger problem in what it already is. For young adults that are 18 years old right now. There kids might not be able to see a clean lake or even a clean environment. People in this century are destroying the environment and they think since they seen it all that its fines to do whatever they want, but really they don’t think about the future. There kids are the future and if this kind of pollution to the water and even the environment is going to kill it and there wont be an environment.
To begin, sewage has a strong effect on the ocean. Sewage or polluting substances flow through sewage, rivers, or drainages directly into the ocean. This is often how minerals and substances from mining camps find their way into the ocean. Because of the release of other chemical
The toxics in the water which effect the fish and then fishermen caught theses fish and then you eat them can cause some serious health problems. Just one piece of plastic can mess up the whole system of the food chain. First we start out with a fish just swimming along who then comes up on some plastic who then eats this plastic. This fish has know been exposed to a toxic and is carrying it around. Therefore when the fishermen catches it and brings it make to the restranunt and one eats it then that person is eating the toxics, which can cause some health problems. For example, cancer, birth defects, or even immune system problems can be caused from toxics from the plastic found in the ocean. Another health issue it can cause is it can mess up a woman’s hormones, which is not a good thing. As the toxic enter the food chain they become more toxic as time goes on. Plankton, which is at the bottom of the food chain, absorbs the awful toxic very easily. The toxic then settles in their bodies becoming more toxic then before. A smaller animal then eats them and then the toxic level rises. The larger animal can live longer but as time goes on the toxic gets stronger after it has eaten the smaller animal. As the pollution of the world increases pollution increases causing the marine life to decreases due to pollution in the ocean. This causes what is known as the extension of animals such as fish that people eat. One doesn’t really hear many people talk about people being sick in the 1500s but what if one started to think that maybe it is coming from the foods we eat. In that time people grew their own food so they knew what was going in them now a days we have no idea what is going into our mouths are where its coming from. What will people eat if the pollution is killing all their fish they eat? Is the pollution some of the main causes for people having cancer or other
There are many human activities and industries that causes marine pollution within our oceans. There is not only one source that causes marine pollution, there several other factors involved as well. One source of marine pollution is NOx and SOx, these are chemicals that are found in ship emissions that gets released into the environment through smoke; NOx and SOx are known to be very harmful to marine life (Raunek). Because of the fact that there are many types of ships out there in the ocean, the amount of NOx and SOx that goes into the ocean is plentiful no matter what because wherever the ship goes, these harmful chemicals are left behind, killing and harming almost every marine organism in its way. The next source of marine pollution is runoff and discharge that come from land (ocean.tamu.edu/). The largest discharge that enters the ocean comes from land is sewage, both industrial waste and sewage sludge(ocean.tamu.edu/). For many years, sewage has been dumped into the depths of the oceans. The sewage that has been collecting in the depths of the ocean can cause severe effects on the organisms around it; the sewage sludge can either poison or kill surrounding organisms. In addition to sewage, the oil industry is another source of pollution. The oil industry are responsible for the occasional, yet catastrophic oil spills; the oil industry are also responsible for small oil leaks that occur regularly as well (Bernard). Oil spills such as the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 which affected many people and organisms alike. The 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico had killed over 7,000 sea turtles, birds, and dolphins, and that doesn’t even include fish (Park). Because of an oil spill, thousands marine animals may have ingested or breathed...
It is sad to say but humans have played their part in deteriorating the earth. We have polluted and killed the very thing that takes care of us. If you ride by any lake or river you find trash and debris around it. In the “The Call of the Wild” the author says that we have committed war against the earth by the dumping of poisons and explosives upon it (337). Unfortunately, plastics are the things that are doing the most harm to our environment. Plastics are convenient and we use them everyday and these are the things that we find in the oceans, rivers and lakes. They are harmful to the earth as well as human health by directly intoxicating us with lead, cadmium and mercury. Plastic debris laced with harmful chemicals are often found inside of our marine life and can poison them. Plastic can survive for thousands of years and many invasive species are found in them which can disrupt our habitats. We need to limit our consumption of plastics and make sure that they are disposed of in their proper places.
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.
The oceans need to be protected because it is where life began and if not taken care of, life as we know it will end. When dangerous substances go into the ocean, ecosystems are suffer and become endangered along with lives of people and of marine life. Surfrider Foundation recognizes the importance of protecting and preserving the quality and biodiversity of the world's coasts because they are truly irreplaceable. There is also historical evidence of ocean pollution being present in the past, but the problem still lingers today. Heal the Bay discovered that,“Did you know there is a DDT and PCB hot spot off the coast of Palos Verdes? This superfund site (which indicates it's one of the most polluted places in the United States), is left over from a 1930's era chemical plant. Because DDT takes so long to break down in the marine environment, it persists to this day, contaminating certain species of fish. There are also highly polluted sediments in the Long Beach area, a sign of the heavy shipping in the port. Heal the Bay works on developing effective capping and removal plans to keep those toxins from spreading” (Heal the Bay). DDT is still highly concentrated in the South Bay area and still contaminating different species of fish. Even after more than 80 years DDT, a toxic insecticide, is still very concentrated and during upwellings, DDT particles come back up and continue to harm marine life. If humans are careless about what is thrown on the floor or sprayed on lawns, it can lead to disastrous affects when it comes to the condition of the ocean's ecosystems, and can endanger life itself leading to a problem that only we can mend.
Oceans generate ½ the oxygen people breath. Air pollution is responsible for 33% of the toxic contaminants that end up in oceans and coastal waters. When factories produce smoke, the smoke ends up being trapped in the ocean, contributing to the dead spots. In the ocean, there are many dead spots or dead zones, in which life cannot survive there; this is due to the lack of oxygen. Although we can clean these dead spots, we choose not to. Think of the biggest dump you 've ever seen, filled with all sorts of bottles and garbage. In the oceans there is the biggest landfill, about the double size of texas. It lays by california, a polluted state. California is a polluted state because of how big it is. Another factor that plays into california 's pollution, is the easy access to water because most of the population of california is on the coast. Fish get trapped in the garbage so close to the shore, and die. When I was snorkeling in St. Thomas, the ocean was crystal clear, and not any pieces of garbage in sight. this is because of the stricter laws they have on littering. Soon because of the ocean currents, this one beautiful non littered ocean will be disgusting and covered by
The problem with contaminated beaches will soon take effect on everyone. The main causes that pollution creates in the beaches are from heavy rainfall, natural disasters, and plant malfunctions. Government agencies cannot control the weather, but they can control what goes into the water. In the United States, the number one reason why beaches are closed down are due to contamination in the water that may be harmful and are left untreated. The arising problem with the beach is that the industries are producing toxic chemicals and tossing the unwanted waste into the ocean. Also, the public are recklessly throwing their trash out into the streets. A prime example to demonstrate this is, if someone was trying to throw a bottle into a street trashcan but missed, he/she is unlikely to pick up after himself/herself if no one was around to see it. This scenario causes pollution to the sidewalks. When mother nature disasters occur, these waste products will end up in the storm drains and into the sewage system. The overflow of debri from the cities can flow into the rivers and if not preserved, it can flow into the ocean. The rivers will then carry these human caused waste into t...