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Ocean Trash Research Paper

Decent Essays

DiJuaun Shelton
BIO 104 10
Dec 13,2016

The Ocean's Trash

Pollution is one of the most concerning topics to talk about in today's modern world. It acts as a poison for anything that lives and breathes; it could toxify water, air, land, humans, and animals, and is not to be taken lightly.
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). …show more content…

It is also known as the Pacific trash vortex, that stretches from the west coast of North America to Japan, and the Eastern Garbage patch which stretches from U.S. states of California to Hawaii. The amount of debris in the GPGP accumulates because much of the debris is not biodegradable. Many plastics, for instance, do not wear down; they simply break into tinier and tinier pieces. Debris like these is detrimental to marine life and their ecosystems. The loggerhead sea turtle often makes the mistake of eating plastic bags mistaking them for jellyfish. Albatrosses mistakenly feed their chicks resin pellets because they resemble fish eggs, thus cause starvation or ruptured

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