Pollution in the oceans, though not commonly known to humans, creates serious problems in our environment. Oil spills, plastic, garbage, and sewage combine together to form the major problem known as pollution. Coral reefs begin to disappear as a result of ocean pollution and many other factors. Carbon dioxide levels increase as greenhouses release gases into the air. As pollution continues to grow and become much worse, organizations create new laws to help reduce or end some of the major problems in our seas.
Our oceans take a large beating every day by the extremely large amount of pollution humans produce. Our society easily dumps their waste into the oceans to dispose of the excessive amount of garbage, sewage, and chemicals, but this small and simple solution is creating an even bigger problem. The way humans dispose of their wastes is causing the death of our beloved marine life. Not only are we killing off our animals, our food source, and our resources, we are also minimizing our usable water. By having a better understanding of the problem on the severe dumping, it will be easier to find ways to help minimize the pollution that is going into the ocean.
The ocean is very mysterious, there is much knowledge that the world does not even know about the ocean. Historically, ocean pollution has always been a tremendous problem but each year it increases drastically. Trash is really hurting not only the ocean but also ocean life environment. Ships can release oil spills into the ocean that can drastically hurt animal life. There are many of organizations attempting to help stop all of this trash from affecting more the world. Wildlife in the ocean is being polluted and some even killed. Most people think that this is not a big problem when in reality it is.
There are many types of pollutions in the world but Ocean pollution harms a lot of living things in the world. Due to the severity of ocean pollution it kills many people, animals, and poison the waters. Ocean pollution originates from many sources therefore the problem is becoming difficult to prevent. This paper will examine the history of ocean pollution, what the situation is like today, and what is being done to help resolve or alleviate the problem.
The first and most common cause is sewage. Sewage flows through drainages that go directly to oceans or rivers. This makes the ocean have poor water quality, which can effect plants and animals living in the ocean. The world contain lots of industrial and agricultural places, which causes more waste being directly put into the oceans, this results in oceanic pollution. But, the dumping is not trash and sewage it is toxic liquids and it can be very hazardous towards marine life. There are approximately 14,000 oil spills a year, due to storms, accidents and etc. This is a huge part of ocean pollution. Oil can last for years in the ocean and can be really toxic to animals, suffocating marine life to death once the oil entraps them. Also oil is extremely hard to clean up out of water, this is why it lasts for years. Oil mining can also be a big cause to oceanic pollution. Ocean mines drill for gold, silver, copper and other minerals. This can cause damage to the lowest levels of the ocean and can increase the toxicity of the region. This method can also contribute with the leaking cause, sometimes there is oil spilling’s that happening while drilling. The final and last one that causes oceanic pollution is littering. Just like oil spills, this can be a huge part to pollution. Littering is when an object is blown away by the wind and ends up landing in the ocean, also because of humans making poor decisions in throwing trash into the ocean. Most of littering is plastic debris, plastic can be really bad for animals, if they mistake it for food or if it gets stuck onto
Pollution has a big effect on are oceans. There's so many causes and it all leads up to one effect which is pollution. The ocean covers up ninety-seven percent of are world's water supply. Seventy percent of the oxygen we breathe is produced by some marine plants. So clearly ocean and its water is are main thing that keeps us alive. Pollution is unhealthy and horrible because there's a lot of plastic in the oceans, land based pollutants, and the careless human interventions.
85% of ocean water is effected by polluted. Nonpoint source pollution is caused by runoffs is one of the biggest sources of ocean pollution. 80% of the ocean pollution comes from land. According to National Ocean Service, “Nonpoint source pollution includes many small sources, like septic tanks, cars, trucks, and boats, plus larger sources, such as farms, ranches, and forest areas. Millions of motor vehicle engines drop small amounts of oil each day onto roads and parking lots. Much of this, too, makes its way to the sea.”
The coral reefs require clear, salty water. Pollution from the land, like dirt and mud, enters streams and rivers. It enters the ocean through its natural process of erosion and makes the water cloudy. Other materials dumped at sea are metal, glass, wood, plastic and chemicals. The build up of greenhouse gases is causing global temperature to rise which also makes ocean temperatures rise.
Global warming is an event that has always happened. Although, the cycle of heating then cooling has been accelerating due to the increased burning of fossil fuels. That increased amount of heat has had a detrimental effect on the world’s oceans. Specifically, marine animals like shellfish and oysters’ population have been weakened. (Exploration and Development of Earth’s Oceans). These animals are at the base of the food chain, meaning many animals prey on them and rely on them as a food source. As the shellfish and oyster populations decrease, those animals that prey on them are forced to hunt more for the same amount of food that was previously readily available. Eventually, those populations then decrease as a result. Soon, a fisherman whose livelihood depends on the quantity fish will have trouble providing for his family. That decreases the amount available for people to buy, negatively affecting our economy. Overfishing is another factor that negatively affects the ocean. Overfishing is defined as when one particular species is fished to the point of extinction or near extinction. One example of overfishing is evident when one looks at the Bluefin tuna. This type of tuna was once over a 100 lbs and a few feet long. Although, it has since been continually fished; due to that, the Bluefin tuna is now much smaller than it has been in the past, (Exploration and Development of Earth’s Oceans). Overfishing has occurred many times through history, although, species are having a much harder time “bouncing-back” due to the compounding negative factors, such as ocean dumping, ocean dumping, and the increased temperature of the ocean itself. Increased aquatic research and funding to oceanic protection programs would help to prevent fishermen from overfishing. The ocean has been becoming increasingly acidic because of the burning of fossils.
Coral reef is one of seawater features that have been affected by climatic changes. This has led to destruction through coral bleaching and increased mortality, especially due to the warming of the sea that causes an increase in sea water levels (Bakerl, Glynn & Riegl, 2008). An increase in global temperature also increases ocean acidification (Hoegh-Guldberg et al., 2007). These occurrences destroy reefs resulting in a significant drop in other sea organisms that depend on the reef. This implies that climatic changes are among the most destructive environmental elements affecting coral reef population in the world. To understand how climatic changes affect coral reef population, it is important to consider different ecological processes that occur due to climatic changes, the most common being the rise in global temperatures.
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
First of all, among the top issues we face as a planet today, trash dumped into the ocean is increasing every year. Fourteen billion pounds to be exact. (ECO360 Plastic Garbage 1) It’s quite selfish of us humans actually. We are cleaning up our terrestrial world, but what about the marine animals? What are we doing to the marine animals’ home? We are destroying it. (A Global Map of Human Impacts on Marine Ecosystems) In fact, we are destroying them too. Forty percent of all ocean ecosystems has been impacted by pollution. (A Global Map of Human Impacts on Marine Ecosystems) As well as the organisms’ suffering in illnesses. They now face problems like an increase in cancer cases, birth deformities, incorrect bodily functions, and more. (The Effects of Ocean
Ocean Pollution is a serious issue in today's global politics. The delicate balance of Earth's ecosystem is put in jeopardy when the ocean is not clean. Problem evolving from ocean pollution directly harm marine life and indirectly affect human health and the Earth's many valuable resources. Ocean Pollution is a Broad term that encpompasses any and all foregin matter that directly or indirectly makes its way into the ocean. This includes everything from the extreme: oil spills, Toxic Waste dumping and industrial dumping-- to the small scael: human activities and basic carelessness. Because the oceans and all other water bodies are invariably, somehow connected, and because they account for 3/4 of the Earth's surface, they are an ideal method of transportation for pollution, allowing the rapid spread of seemingly far away toxins into a river near you! It is increasingly important that we educate ourselves as to what, exactly, ocean pollution is, so that we can identify the causes at their source and take action in small and large ways, and hopefully, prevent this terrible form of pollution from getting any worse than it is today.
With new technology and different resources that make human life easier, there are increased problems for the environment and wildlife. Plastic was a huge discovery and it has changed everyday life since then. Plastic has a low cost and has replaced many traditional products such as wood and glass. Because of their wide variety of uses, plastics are used throughout the entire world. This poses problems with how to safely dispose of plastics and the damage they cause when they are not disposed of properly.
Global warming is one of the major reasons in marine pollution. For an instance in the year 2010 there was an oil leakage near Mumbai in the Arabian Sea.