Dilemmas Of Oceans

Throughout many decades there has been a huge environmental problem, not only putting marine life at risk but also human health. Ocean pollution is a big threat to the habitat and still today we haven’t stopped throwing trash, chemicals or toxins into the oceans. During the 1940’s, a technical service of the Army dumped a lot of chemical warfare into the sea, believing the type of gas will dissolve in the water becoming harmless in minutes. At that time, fishermen were able to catch a lot of fish, it wasn’t until they were out of luck and all they could see were dead fish floating on the surface. Many people think that oil spills and trash are the only types of ocean pollution, but they’re also forgetting about chemical, bacterial and thermal pollution. Polluted seas can be the cause of many diseases or infections, especially if people don’t take big measures like telling their kids not to “accidentally” drink water from rivers or lakes when swimming. Marine animals are a big part of our food chain if they carry diseases or toxins we’re also in big danger. Today, there have been many people who have been trying to stop others from polluting the oceans, but they still haven’t been able to convince the whole world to end ocean pollution. The government, instead of wasting money on unnecessary things like building walls or building more towers and creating more trash they should build trash contractors that will help with the trash floating around in the seas. There are

Our oceans are vast and they are some of the most mysterious and diverse places on earth. They provide food and shelter for countless organisms, they also provide a key factor to life; water. Unfortunately, pollution is dangering Marine life and slowly destroying the oceanic ecosystem. We have always had this notion that because of the sheer size of the ocean, that dumping our trash and other toxins into the sea would have no major consequences. As we have seen, that is entirely inaccurate. Oil spills, floating trash, toxic spills are just some of the various factors that contribute to the pollution of the oceans (Heimbuch, 2009).

Everybody throws away trash with little or no thought about where it’s going. What you might not know is that a lot of trash goes into our ocean. You may think it is not a big deal and that it’s just a little bit of trash in a really big ocean, but it’s not just a little bit of trash. In fact, it’s a whole lot. There is a place between California and Hawaii called the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, but is better known as the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch”. This area is the largest landfill in the world and is completely in the ocean. What are the effects of the landfill on the environment and how can it be prevented and rehabilitated to its original state?

Earth's oceans are dying. “About 80% of the ocean around the world is polluted with chemicals industrial and residential waste, all of which comes from the land” (“Marine Problems…”).  Pollution is mainly coming from the people. Marine pollution should be stopped because it is the cause of many problems and if something is done about it, people will see an increase in sea life and healthier waters. It makes its way into the ocean and kills marine life. Ocean pollution is affecting the way of fisherman and their everyday lives. It is also very bad on the community because pollution is very bad on tourism. Ocean pollution should be stopped because it is poorly affecting marine life, it is not good for fishermen, and is very bad on tourism.

In the article When the Mermaids Cry” The Great Plastic Tide by Claire Le Guern Lytle, she wrote “For more than 50 years, global production and consumption of plastics have continued to rise. An estimated 299 million tons of plastics were produced in 2013, representing a 4 percent increase over 2012, and confirming and upward trend over the past years” This means that more and more trash is added to the 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic floating in the ocean. Almost everything around us is made out of plastic, this is later misused and ending in the wrong place. The Center for Biological Diversity wrote “In the first decade of this century, we made more plastic than all the plastic in history up to the year 2000. And every year, billions of pounds of plastic end up in the world’s oceans. Most ocean pollution starts out on land and is carried by wind and rain to the sea. Once in the water, there is a near-continuous accumulation of waste.” Our plastic is misplaced and it escalates from there. However, plastic pollution hurts us as well. “Trash in the water compromises the health of humans, wildlife and the livelihoods that depend on a healthy ocean;” wrote a non-profit group called Ocean Conservation. If our oceans are covered in trash, everyone that relies on the ocean is going to suffer. The effect is not just in our health, it also affects our economy. Ocean Conservation also

Society tends to blame the fisherman for the trash that turns into marine debris. They are wrong. According to the California Coastal Commission, “Only 20% of the items found in the ocean can be linked to ocean-based sources, like commercial fishing vessels, cargo fish or pleasure cruise ships. The remainder (80%) is due to land based sources like litter (from pedestrians, motorists, beaches visitor), industrial discharges (in the form of plastic pellets and powders), and garbage management.”. Fisherman and other trained workers in the oceans are not the only

Back in the 1800s most waste that ships carried were dumped in our oceans without much thought. The difference from then to now is that the dump 200 years ago was biodegradable dump now about 14.4 million tons of our waste is plastic which is not always biodegradable according to the EPA and that number is rapidly increasing every year. Our oceans are massively being affected and so are we in ways unimaginable like the fact that our fish are ingesting chemicals that is in the plastics in the sea and we are being fed these toxic chemicals. Maybe if citizens have a better understanding of what is going on in our oceans they’ll decide to do something about it.

There are four named oceans in the world: Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, and Arctic. Roughly 70% of the earth’s oxygen is produced by marine plants and only 27% by rainforests. Over 80% of ocean pollution comes from land based activity. This activity can include, but is not limited to, burning oil and not recycling plastics. With knowing those statistics, people should undoubtedly be more concerned with our ocean’s health and well being than what they currently are. Yes, there are a copious amount of websites that accept donations but there are other ways that do not involve breaking the bank to save and protect the oceans. By using reusable plastics, reducing our carbon footprint, and buying ocean-friendly products and food, the oceans dying process could not completely stop, but slow down drastically.

Based on the article by National Geographic, there is a giant island made of trash. The name of this trash island is the great pacific garbage patch. This patch is about 20 million square kilometers. Based on the amount of garbage collected there is about 70% of all the garbage there sinking to the bottom of the ocean(National Geographic). The garbage in the ocean are not able to decompose so they just sit there within the ocean. Trash in the ocean is also a safety hazard for marine life. The garbage their kill animals like turtles or albatross, birds (National Geographic). The problem with the gyre is that it is still growing, pollution is still entering our ocean and are not decomposing. The trash also hold chemicals that is harmful to the environment. Examples can be that decomposing bottles leak out bisphenol A or BPA for short; BPA can lead to many “environmental and health problems” (National Geographic). Data from NOAA tells us that these gyres of garbage are formed by the circulation of “wind and wave actions” (NOAA). The ocean holds many wonderful life and creatures, but we humans are not always considerate of other lives, so as a result we end up hurting our home and our

Some people call the Pacific Garbage patch The Floating Island Of Trash. Well, it is trash, but not exactly an island like some people think-- It is more like trash soup located near Midway Island/Atoll. Midway is one third of the distance from Honolulu, Hawaii to Tokyo, Japan. Scientists estimate that it is now the size of America! This garbage patch is a collection of marine debris that is mostly made out of plastic. The debris collects in the pacific garbage patch due to a series of currents that create a circular effect like a toilet bowl and a spiral. These currents are called the gyres;the trash and debris gets trapped. Most of the trash is under the water, and much of it is so small you can not see it. NOAA, the National Oceanic Atmospheric Association reported that," In 2008 plastic outweighs surface zooplankton 6 to 1." The garbage in Pacific Gyre is mainly plastic. There are plastic bottles, plastic caps, plastic computer parts just to name a few. There is not only one gyre in the ocean, there are 5. We have so much plastic that we should not be using. This plastic is effecting the ocean, animals, people, and our

Recycling and going green has been at the forefront of everyone's mind for the last 10 years. It has become a major concern to able to preserve the planet and reverse some of the damage that society has been inflicting over the last two hundred years. Everyone's concerned with emissions and electric cars but the world is in fact over two-thirds water. So naturally what society should be concerned about should be the oceans in the pollution and negative human impact that people have placed on them. Part of the problem as an initial estimate of the amount of plastic is not accurate. Not to mention incredible environmental and ecological effects the plastic has on marine life. Ocean plastic has reached a critical level where human intervention needs to take place.

Several years ago, supporters of dumping trash into the ocean had a saying, “The solution to pollution is dilution.” This delusional thinking has led to a steady decline in ocean

The oceans face many types of pollution every day, every second. The ocean is our greatest ecosystem and out most valuable resource. A common misconception is that the rainforests are the lungs of the planet however, the majority of our oxygen is made via the algae in the sea. The oceans feeds, hydrates, and provides us with oxygen; ironically enough, despite its monetary value to mankind, it is what is treated the worst. For ages we have been dumping our trash, chemicals, and waste into the oceans with no fear or regret, almost an “out of sight- out of mind” mentality. People once and still assume that the oceans are so vast that all of the pollution is diluted and would be dispersed through out, going unnoticed. However, dilution is a myth and an idea that renders ocean dumping to be less impactful. Even so much of the man made pollution is becoming even more concentrated and have entered our natural food chain. However vast the waters of the ocean are, they are not meant to house all of these external factors. There are many alternatives to marine pollution including recycling, finding alternative trash dump sites, cutting down on harmful chemicals for agriculture, and most importantly having the ability to recognize when a problem is developing and counter act, immediately.

Although the ocean covers approximately two thirds of the Earth’s surface, it is surprisingly susceptible to human influences. The effects of rubbish dumping have tainted our oceans and they have taken their toll on the vast marine environments and the populations in which they contain. Rubbish dumping involves depositing all the waste materials from factories and industries, tankers and ships and sewerage waste materials into the oceans and seas. In the report “Causes and Effects of Ocean Dumping”, the author Sharda states that “The wastes that are dumped into the oceans tend to have toxic substances which soak in all the oceanic oxygen. This

of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the exact size remains unknown. In addition, Doucette warns us that this patch contains more than ten million tons of waste. She describes the area to be a “fetid swamp of debris where tiny bits of decaying plastic outweigh zooplankton- one of the most prolific and abundant organisms on the planet- by a ration of six-to-one”(Doucette). It is now apparent that the amount of plastic particles residing in our oceans is damaging the natural habit and this trash is not going anywhere. Due to the currents in the ocean, plastic particles are