Marine Ocean Health

Our Oceans Health

When swimming or going on deep sea trips in the ocean have you come across trash, like plastic bottles and plastic bags? This is a big deal in today’s society as there are reports of over “5.25 trillion pieces of plastic debris that have been found in the ocean.” With how much marine debris that is found in the ocean this causes concern to both human health and marine life health. In this research paper I will describe what the great garbage patches are, including the effect it has on the ocean as well as the extent and pollutants involved, in addition I will go over the plans and strategies implemented to mitigate and possibly prevent this concern. In 1997 Captain Charles J. Moore had discovered The Great garbage patch

Nearly “about 60 to 80 percent of the trash found in the ocean is plastic.” People think, well if plastic is floating in the ocean how does it effect me? The persistent bio accumulative toxic is typically found in plastic when it photo-degrades. When the plastic is consumed by fish in the sea, their bodies become contaminated and with fish being human prey, humans will eventually be affected by these chemicals due to the process known as Bioaccumulation. A chemist by the name Saido, had conducted a study and found that when plastic is decomposed in to micro-plastic it then releases PS Oligomer and Bisphenol A (BPA), both harsh chemical pollutants that can damage the reproductive system. Unfortunately those aren't the only harsh chemicals, during the study researchers found that plastic also released a synthetic chemical known as Styrene.() Styrene is known to be a human carcinogen and with that this raises huge concerns in both humans health and Marine life. One compound of styrene is trimer, which is typically found when the plastic decomposes due to excessive heat resulting in that chemical to be released. Trimer is also classified as a carcinogen which means this is also detrimental to both animals and human life. Fortunately today scientists are discovering new ways to prevent plastic from entering the ocean though it may take a lot of cleaning up, it’s a

Well did you know you not only get paid to recycle, but the environment as a whole benefits from this as well. Today recycling is a huge deal because the Environmental Protection Agency knows that if we don't mitigate or prevent trash from entering The Great Garbage Patches, they will only increase in size and become worse. All countries recycling percentages are anywhere between “0 percent to 63 percent being the highest.” Though these percentages are better than previous years there is much more room for improvement. With the recycling percentages remaining relatively low worldwide, many scientist and engineers have worked together to create biodegradable plastic. The two different types of biodegradable plastics are bioplastics themselves and plastics that use biodegradable additives. The questions is, how does creating bioplastics help prevent pollution in the ocean? Besides the fact that bioplastics can be decomposed, it’s also made up of natural materials such as corn oil and plants, instead of petroleum based raw materials. “2.65 kg of corn is needed in order to make 1 kg of polylactic acid”, which polylactic acid is the only known acid to make compostable plastic. These bioplastics also carry less toxins and do not consist of any Bisphenol A (BPA) or any of those harsh chemical pollutants found from the micro plastics that are currently in the ocean. Unfortunately, some bioplastics cannot be broken down as