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An Essay on Ocean Pollution
Consequences of ocean pollution
Ocean pollution environmental issue
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Oceans are the largest water bodies on the planet Earth. Over the last few decades, surplus human activities have severely affected the marine life on the Earth’s oceans. Ocean pollution, also known as marine pollution, is the proliferation of harmful substances in the water and is the primary cause of dead for many species whom live in there. Therefore, ocean pollution has various ways to enters to the ocean such as: sewage, large scale of oil spills and littering.
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
nutrients into the ocean’s ecosystem, the sea water has important reductions in oxygen levels, the decay of plant life and a severe decline in the quality of the sea water itself. Thus, all levels of oceanic life, plants and animals, are highly affected. Another main cause of ocean pollution is large scale of oil spills. Crude oil lasts for years in the sea and is extremely toxic to marine life, often suffocating marine animals to death once it entraps them. Crude oil is also extremely difficult to clean up, unfortunately meaning that if it is split, it will stay there forever. Often, other species can also invade an ecosystem and do harm to it by interrupting the life cy
"An Ocean Of Trash." Scholastic Action 33.12 (2010): 16. MasterFILE Complete. Web. 31 Jan. 2014.
The article indicates that the influences of oceans pollution that made by humans and caused by a phenomenon called “dead zones”. First of all, there is a great amount of plastic in the ocean which causes massive consequences for animals of the entire marine food web. On the other hand, “Dead zone” also affect Earth’s oceans. “Dead zones” can formed by many causes, such as natural causes, climate change, along human activities and industrial waste. These is a national problem and humans need to have some regulatory mechanisms. Therefore, it can helps the “dead zones” reduced. The author mentions that the US Environmental
So, to get you started, we will hit some of the basics of ocean pollution. You most likely know that plastic is a major issue, but thats not the only thing harming the ocean. Pollution of the ocean is also caused by domestic and industrial activities, consisting of some of the following, underwater mining- potential for
The main source of ocean dumping is sewage sludge. The sewage pipes and storm drains often share space. Heavy rainfall can flood these pipes, causing the contents to mix and overflow. After that, waste can be carried along with storm water, into nearby water sources.
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.
There are many different ways the ocean can become polluted. One major way would be man-made pollutants such as pesticides, herbicides, chemical fertilizers, detergents, oil, sewage, plastics, and other solids, finding their way into the ocean and collecting at the ocean's depths. In fact, this makes up 80% of the ocean's pollution. At the depths, they are consumed by small organisms that introduce the pollutants to the global food chain. Many of the pollutants are released into local streams, rivers, and groundwater and are eventually deposited into estuaries, bays, and deltas. This can cause massive amount of algae to grow, taking oxygen from the water and places marine life can exist. In the past 2 years, these dead zones have increased by 1/3. Scientists have discovered around 400 dead zones in world.
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)
According to MarineBio.org, “The most toxic waste material dumped into the ocean includes dredged material, industrial waste, sewage sludge, and radioactive waste” (MarineBio, pg 1). There are a variety of other different types of pollution that are currently in the ocean; plastic is only one factor of pollution, but there are others as well. For example, oil spills are considered as pollution. Oil spills have an effect on the ocean because many different types of fish take in the contaminated water through their gills. The oil makes its way into the fish’s system, which in turn damages the fish’s system, leading to death. Another type of pollution is sewage disposal pollution. Sewage disposal pollution is when the sewage water is not properly treated. Then, the sewage water makes its way into the ocean. Under treated sewage water contains many hazardous chemicals that bring negative effects to the contaminated area, which is the surface of the ocean. These chemicals poison sea creatures that thrive on the surface of the ocean. Animals such as geese, fish, turtles, and countless more. What all these types of pollution have in common is that all these factors play a significant role in the process of destroying the ocean. The type of pollution that
Oceans are such so vast that people underestimate the impact their actions —seeming so insignificant— have on them. Humans have by and large taken the oceans for granted; not considering how important a healthy ocean is to our survival. A popular mind-set is that the oceans are a bottomless supply of fish, natural resources, and an infinite waste dump. There are myriad reasons why the oceans should be saved and the most obvious one is marine life. With 71% of the Earth being covered by water, it is obvious that sea creatures are predominant form of life, making up 80% of the species of life on Earth. However, as important as marine life is, that is not the only reason why saving the oceans is crucial. The ocean floor provides natural resources such as, oil, natural gas, petroleum, minerals, medications, and ingredients for foods and products. The economic benefits of the oceans are huge and significant, as well. Fishing and fish products have provided employment to 38 million people and have generated about $124 billion in economic benefits. However, oceans are on the verge of crisis, marine life, natural resources, transportation, the economy, and important ingredients are at risk due to overfishing, pollution, and acidification. Thus, in this essay I will argue that, oceans are not impervious to human activity and threatening the health of the ocean threatens the health of humanity, since oceans key to our survival.
Ocean acidification causes many problems with marine life. It affects both shelled and not shelled life in a negative way. With more acidity in the water, coral and shelled animals cannot build their shells or skeletons. Animals without a shell have interference with some basic bodily functions like growth and reproduction. The acidification of the ocean is caused by carbonic acid, which is formed by CO2 reacting with seawater. In fact, the ocean reduces global warming by absorbing one third of carbon dioxide. In recent studies, the acidic levels have increased by six percent in the last 15 years. There has not been a rapid shift in pH in millions of years and the marine life is not accustomed to it. Paleontology studies show that with a significant change, it usually led to huge losses of sea life. Due to the acidification, marine
Ocean Acidification is the process where Carbon Dioxide (CO2) is absorbed by the ocean, causing water to lower in pH making the water it more acidic. The result of CO2 being released into the atmosphere in such large quantities, as a result of anthropogenic global warming, is causing the ocean to slowly become more acidic over time.The world’s oceans absorb about ¼ of all the world’s carbon emission yearly as a result of anthropogenic climate change. Since the Industrial Era, the oceans have been reducing in pH by 0.1 every year. It is estimated that by the end of the 21st century, if carbon emissions were to continue as they are now, the ocean’s coral reefs will disappear as a result of Ocean Acidification.
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.
Today's waters are constantly being treated like sewage dumps or trash cans. We use them as garbage cans every day polluting the water more and more. "Pollution is often by way of rivers, drains and outflow pipes." Causing an outflow of sewage into our ocean waters. This is not only affecting the community but also the marine life and other sea creatures living in the ocean." This pollution includes human sewage and domestic waste water, factory outflows of acids and poisonous metals, engine oil from roadside drains and garages, farm chemicals washed off the land by rain, building-site rubble, nuclear waste from power plants, and oil from wells, refineries, and tankers." Stating that most of today's waste is from factory or factory ran products that shouldn't be polluting the water
Non- governmental marine based organizations aim to improve, protect and conserve the planet’s marine life and ecosystems. Two of these notable organizations are Oceana and the Ocean Conservancy. Both of these groups operate worldwide and solely base their work and focus on oceans and aquatic ecosystems. They also share one main objective out of many, to protect and improve marine biodiversity. Even though Oceana and the Ocean Research and Conservation Association share some similar aspects, they both have different approaches and differ in certain goals.
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.