Ocean Trash Research Paper

The scientific realm of ocean trash and its impact has been left horrifyingly untouched and is only now being taken up. Consequentially, we have been oblivious to the negative affects of this issue to the point where (1) the largest landfill on Earth is situated in the Pacific Ocean, known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Although we lack a proper understanding, it is still an enormous threat to our planet and to us as humans, a fact that we seem content to be ignorant of. Already, there are (2) well over five trillion known scraps of garbage amuck in the ocean. Another moment cannot be spared if we are to do something. The immense amount of ocean trash afloat has caused concerns for marine life, human health, and even economy. As long as
(6) Sometimes, the marine life that eats our garbage find their way onto our tables as our food. Our digested trash, which has soaked up many toxins, contaminates the fish. If these fish, by some miracle, do not die before fishermen catch them, they poison us. Also, (7) certain chemicals plastics consist of are slowly released into the air we breathe and the water we drink. These chemicals could potentially cause many awful diseases and defects, (8) such as, however not limited to, cancer, liver dysfunction, asthma, bronchitis, severe lung problems, and a multitude of skin diseases. Many of the more common effects, however, are not fatal, such as dizziness, eye and nose irritations, coughing, headaches, and tiredness. But the risk is too high to leave it be until a later date. Not only does our horrible habit of pollution kill marine life, it may also find itself taking
Of the many negative economic effects, one of the more substantial is that on fishermen. (9) According to a study done in Shetland, ninety two percent of fishermen returned with debris in trapped in their nets, sixty nine percent didn’t sell their catch due to it being contaminated, and another ninety two percent had nets broken from ocean trash on sea beds. The amount of time they spend untangling trash from nets averaged one to two hours per week. (10) In total, the debris is reported to have done over one billion dollars worth of damage. However, this figure doesn’t include the cost of cleaning up. Said Alistair McIlgrom of the National Marine Science Center in Coffs Harbor, "If you added the clean up bill of all of [the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation] it would be a lot more." Although the costs of cleaning up are high, the costs of not cleaning up are even higher. (11) While cleaning up would cost us our money, not cleaning up could cost us our