What's Happening to Our Oceans

Do you ever think about what happens to all the trash and litter that you see on your street or at the beach? Well a lot of it makes its way into the ocean through streams that flow into rivers which flow into the ocean. A lot of trash that makes its way into the ocean can hurt a lot of sea animals like sea turtles, seals, dolphins, birds, and fish! Lots of different harmful things that come from us and make their way into the ocean and pollute its waters like toxic sewage runoff, fishing nets, plastic items, and the most dangerous oil spills and dumping. All of these thing have lots of bad affects on marine animals and the ecosystems where they live in and strangely it can even affect us right here at in our homes.

One of the worst effects of ocean pollution and probably one that a lot of people do not really even think about is the damage that it does to us! when we pollute ares that we get our seafood from with toxic waste and chemicals it leads to contaminated or sick fish or shell fish (2). The sea creatures go straight from the ocean to your grocery store which can lead to many diseases in people like food poisoning or chemical problems (2).

Possibly the largest affect ocean pollution has is the damage that it does to the living things that either live in the ocean or rely on it for food. Like i already said just about every living thing in the ocean gets some type of negative affect from the ocean, one important thing to know is that toxic waste that gets dumped into ocean waters can even damage marine life brains and development (1). These changes can lead to a complete screwball on the blank of an ecosystem area and how it runs and its balance of ocean life (1). These condition tend to lead to a lot of problems with either an over or under population of a specific animal or organism living in one ecosystem area.

Figure 1

One of the most harmful and dangerous items that we pollute the oceans water with are any type of plastic material. Plastic is the only material that is illegal to be dumped anywhere into the ocean (3), with that being said it is not like it does not make its way into the ocean and poullute and damage its waters and marine life. Maybe the most dangerous plastic item that finds its way into the oceans waters is the six pack plastic rings (Figure 1) that are used to hold our cans and bottles together. These can hurt or damage just about any type of sea animal by either the becoming entangled in the rings or they just simply try to swallow the plastic rings. when this happens it can not only seriously hurt or kill the marine animal but can affect its quality of life through impaired swimming ability and stomach and appetite complications (1).

Another type of pollution that we don't really think about but is very real is raw sewage. this sew along with toxic chemicals flow through rivers and right into the ocean. They do their damage by the chemicals polluting marine life and plantlike which brings down the overall quality of the water itself (1).

Figure 2

Lastly probably the worst and most dangerous thing that we pollute our oceans waters with is oil .It pollutes the ocean through, oil spills (Figure 2), dumping and runoff being released into our rivers and flowing into the ocean (1). Any one of the oceans animals or plants that gets caught in oil pollution can be either seriously damaged or sometimes killed by it.

To finish up i hope this showed you the damage that ocean pollution is causing and you open your eyes to treating our                               planet better!

                                                                                                                      

References

Laist, D.W. (1987) Overview of the lost and discarded plastic debris in a marine environment, 

Marin                                           pollution bulletin, 18(6), 319_326.

Sindermann, C. J. (1995). Ocean pollution: effects on living resources and humans. CRC press.

Vikas, M., & Dwarakish, G. S. (2015). Coastal Pollution: A Review. Aquatic Procedia, 4, 381-388.