The Negative Effects Of Ocean Pollution

Life underwater is without a doubt the most beautiful sceneries on Earth; however, can easily be taken away from the carelessness of human activities. Due to the massive production of waste and the excessive need for daily materials, oceans are becoming more and more polluted; in addition, result to damaging effects on marine life. The ocean appears to be a large trash can for disposing waste in the convenience for humans. According to UNESCO, statistics show that in 2006, 46,000 plastic materials were found scattered every square mile in the ocean; in addition to that statistic, millions of marine animals are severely injured or even fatal from plastic materials [1]. A statistic had shown that millions upon millions of seabirds, as well as,
For example, industrial waste that contained 17 million tons was being dumped into oceans legally in 1970; in addition, a year after the amount of waste was reduced to 8 million tons [3]. In the 8 million tons of industrial waste, the materials contained large amounts of acid based materials, metals, and waste from coal mining. Another cause is radioactive waste from medical use, nuclear power processes and research by using radioisotopes. Since radioisotopes are radioactive for an increasingly large amount of time, the waste can be extremely fatal to marine animals and their ecosystems. All of these examples are human-made due to the inexperience of disposing toxic chemicals, and the convenience of simply dumping any type of waste to the ocean (since the ocean is so large). Littering is believed to be the source of ocean pollution. The reason is that materials and waste are supposedly blown and landed directly into oceans; in addition, some marine animals can mistake certain materials as food which can be pernicious. There are other forms of ocean pollution like oil spills and mining. Oil spills are considered to be the “most devastating effect” due to the crude oil being extremely difficult to remove [3]. The toxicity of the crude oil can leave marine animals trapped and in result, can be fatal. Ocean mining is drilling into the deepest parts of the ocean, which can impact the environment and increase toxic levels. If the drilling is not properly dealt with, then this can seriously harm the ecosystems in the lower parts of the ocean. Most of the debris that stay in the ocean and unable to decompose can degrade oxygen levels, thus, chances of survival is reduced to a minimum