Our ecosystem is in danger. Fish, corals, octopuses, turtles, and even whales are dying. One may ask why: humans. Humans are wiping out multiple ecosystems on a daily basis. If this atrocious rate of marine life genocide continues, the human race probably won’t be able to have fish on their dinner plates in approximately a hundred years. The water is murky, and life is fading away. Several factors act as a cause for this catastrophe. For example, the annihilation of marine organisms is kindled by pollution, overfishing, factory fishing, bottom trawling, global warming, and whaling.
To begin with, pollution of the ocean such as oil spills play a major role in corrupting the marine life. Oil spills occur due to numerous reasons. For instance, people may make mistakes while using equipment containing oil and cause an oil spill. A representative epitome would be the 2007 South Korea oil spill. Around 7:30 am on 7 December 2007 in Korea’s local time, Samsung Heavy Industries’ crane barge crashed into Hebei Spirit, a crude carrier anchored by Hong Kong, while being towed. The tragic accident took place near the Daesan port on the coast of Yellow Sea, spilling approximately 260,000 tons of oil in the sea. The situation worsened as the barge freely floated around after the tug cable had snapped. Fortunately enough, no casualties were reported from this incident. However, the region that the spill had affected was one of the major homes used migratory birds, and contained a national maritime park along with 445 sea farms as well. People reluctantly assumed the oil spill would not widely spread because of severely low winter temperatures of Korea. Such unwilling attitude essentially exacerbated the situation. Unexpectedly warm climate alo...
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...n this area. Common trash that can be found include items of cigarette butts, plastic bags and bottles, lighters, Styrofoam, cans, toothbrushes, balloons, fishing lines, buoys, and nets. Marine creatures, for instance sea turtles, mistake garbage such as plastic as food and consume it, causing blockages of digestive functions in their systems and eventually leading them to death. Also, plastic toxins affect fish, which essentially appear on dinner plates. Humans are ingesting what they have thrown away. The melancholy fact is that less than 5% of plastics are recycled throughout the globe.
Keeping all the pollutants in mind, overfishing is another key problem that is destroying the marine life today. Overfishing is an overexploitation in which stocks of fish are wiped out and depleted to intolerable levels, regardless of how large or small the water body size is.
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 &
This problem may seem prevalent and it is very important to know about. It affects marine life in many ways, but humans are also greatly affected.by this problem. People don’t realize what this problem does to them. However the human race can always work and solve this issue. People shouldn’t dump trash in the ocean or any water source. Trash can destroy coral reefs and other important ecosystems and ruin marine life. Most important sewage plants shouldn’t dump raw sewage into the ocean because it provides nutrients to harmful algae. Governments around the world should put more restrictions on sewage and the disposal of it. But if the solution wants to be solved people must work together.
Because it is the most highly publicized of the different forms of ocean pollution, oil spills, oil leakages, and general oil contamination are something that we all seem to be aware of. Since the Exxon Valdez incident, the American public in particular has been more and more critical of oil companies.Each year, over 700 million gallons of oil end up in the ocean. Contrary to what you may have thought, most oil pollution doesn't come from tanker accidents. In fact, tanker accidents account for less than 90 million of the g...
Most people believe that one man-made natural disaster would teach us to be better, but we have learned that history repeats itself. The Exxon Valdez oil spill (in 1989) and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, or BP oil spill, (in 2010) were both devastating oil spills that shocked the nation. The Exxon Valdez oil spill occurred due to a tanker grounding. The BP oil spill was caused by an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil platform. These two oil spills were both disasters and had greater effects in certain categories. In this essay, I will be comparing the cause of both oil spills, the damage/effect of both oil spills, and the cleanup of each oil spill.
"An Ocean Of Trash." Scholastic Action 33.12 (2010): 16. MasterFILE Complete. Web. 31 Jan. 2014.
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.
Threats to the marine habitat are inclusive of “hard” damage to the marine environment, caused by destructive fishing practices, which include bottom dredging, blast fishing, and trawling among others. Issues like water pollution, development of coastal wetlands, and the decline of coral reefs due to ocean acidification are some other threats to the marine environment. Furthermore, there is a severe lack of regulation, especially aimed at the protection and conservation of highly migratory species, which is a contributing factor to the continued damage to the marine environment.
Imagine a lush underwater place. Beautiful structures colorful animals and places that would never have been thought of before. In reality that's not what it really looks like, really the ocean is a desolate place that is barren like a desert. Many marine species have been lost by as much as 49%.(seeker) A big part of that reason is because of coral bleaching which causes as stated above a decline in species that depend on the coral as there home. Coral bleaching is a serious problem that could cause problems for everyone if we don’t fix it.
Pollution of the oceans have been a big problem in the world, and it seems that these problems are not getting better. People keep talking about how we need to fix this problem, but no one seems to act on it. Ocean pollution is terrible for not just fish, but humans also. All this is also avoidable, the majority of the oceans pollution is man made. We are just hurting ourselves by doing this, but people continue to put stuff in the ocean. There is a clean up process for all of this, but it is not easy. Much is at harm from ocean pollution and it should be treated.
The ocean is a vital part of the world's ecosystem, it regulates weather around the world, supplies nutrients to billions, even trillions of organisms, and covers roughly seventy percent of the earth. The unfortunate thing is that the state of the ocean is degrading and becoming a danger to many organisms who depend on it, the acidification of the ocean is causing many organisms to become poisoned or die. Global climate change is hurting the environment, especially the ocean, and is actively deceiving that fact that its current status is not improving. Human impact on the oceans and atmosphere is real, coral reefs around highly populated areas are becoming bleached, and the impact humans have needs to be minimized.
Overfishing occurs when more fish are caught than the population can replace through natural reproduction (http://www.worldwildlife.org, 2015.) Overfishing is a huge problem that should be worked on. One country cannot change everything but, something must be done. Overfishing needs to be managed, fishermen need catching limits, and we need to protect breeding grounds year-round and make consequences severe when fishermen are engaged in illegal activities. It is negatively affecting our eco-system; marine life cannot reproduce fast enough to sustain their species.
The first cause of the marine extinction is coming from over-fishing and commercial fishing. According to Marine Extinction and Conservation, commercial fishing has
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).
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.