(My senior year English final paper)
If you’ve ever littered, did you think much about where it may end up? Probably not, because how much damage could one little piece of trash cause anyways? The answer is SO MUCH DAMAGE. You, my friend, are participating in the millions of other humans that are causing our waters to become polluted. One piece of trash might not seem like a big deal, but when you combine it with the billions of other pieces of trash that were “just one piece”, a problem has formed. The ocean, which makes up 71% of our Earth’s surface, is full of trash, plastics, oil, chemicals, and other waste, all thanks to us. (80% of the waste in the ocean has come from the land.) And since it’s our fault, it should be our job to work to fix this pollution problem. Ocean pollution is a dangerous issue that needs attention because it poses a threat to the marine life that call those waters their home.
Let’s start with what pollution is: when a harmful substance meets an ecosystem, but isn’t normally supposed to be in it. For the ocean, and most other ecosystems that face pollution, these abnormal substances that encounter them are caused by humans. The ocean faces pesticides, herbicides, plastics, oil, sewage, and many other awful things that shouldn’t be there. The majority of pollution in the ocean today accumulated within the past 60 years, and in the past 10 years, we produced more plastic than in the whole last century. The scariest part is that not all of this pollution is accidental! Ships out at sea sometimes dump their waste into the ocean, and factories do the same. Sewage can also be deposited into the ocean. When factories dump toxic liquids into the ocean, it’s bad enough that it’s hazardous, but they can increase water temperatures as well. Any poor animal or plant that can’t survive in raised temperatures is doomed. In 2013, a Princess Cruise ship dumped 4,227 gallons of oily waste into the ocean off the coast of Britain. Thankfully an engineer crew member reported the employees who did so. They chose to pollute the ocean to save money, but jokes on them, Princess Cruise Lines was fined $40 million. The incident also uncovered four other ships doing the same thing.
Non-intentional and accidental pollution is also a large problem. When runoff from a farm, such as chemicals or animal waste, ends up in rivers, it is carried to the ocean. This happens when excess water flows into the ocean from the land, carrying any pollutants with it. The runoff of fertilizer from soil that ends up in the ocean can cause extreme growths in marine algae. These large amounts of algae have the potential to disrupt ecosystems and even create a “dead zone”, or an area of low oxygen that suffocates the animals living in it. Algae outbreaks are also able to cause skin irritation and cognitive problems in people local to the area. So when we let the ocean get polluted, even on accident, we are hurting ourselves as well as the creatures inside the waters. One of the worst and most devastating ways the ocean is polluted is by an oil spill. Oil is toxic to all marine life, and can suffocate animals that get trapped in it. These tragedies are extremely difficult to clean up, with almost no way to completely clean up all oil from a spill. The Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010 was the largest U.S. oil spill in history, with a whopping 210 MILLION gallons of oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico. Seven years later and clean up efforts are still going on for this horrible accident. Millions of dollars have already been spent for the efforts as well. It left an unimaginable number of animals dirty, facing health problems, or killed.
All organisms living in the ocean are threatened by ocean pollution. Coral reefs are damaged by debris. Thousands of animals get caught in plastic packaging, fishing nets, and whatever else they may swim into, most likely injuring, suffocating or drowning the animal. They also mistake debris for food, causing them to either choke or face health problems after eating it. Sea turtles and other mammals mistake plastic bags for a yummy jelly fish. The plastic causes blockage in their digestive system, leading to death. Scientists have been finding high levels of manmade chemicals being in the bodies of marine mammals. This is a major cause of population decreases. When smaller animals ingest these pollutants, they have the ability to mess up an entire food chain. Some die, leaving their predators with no food, while some get sick, getting their predators sick as well. And with winds and currents, pollution is able to reach even more of the ocean, harming even more animals. This all causes a domino effect that reaches the top of the food chain, and possibly us humans too. Yet again, we can be affected by ocean pollution. I’m sure it would be no fun to eat a fish that’s been sick from eating trash! You’d think that would be enough of a reason for us to stop polluting so much?! Nope.
Another form of pollution that harms the ocean greatly is noise pollution. Large areas near the Short that produce too much sound, as well as ships and oil rigs traveling through the water, produce sound waves in the water. These sound waves can disrupt migration, communication between animals, hunting (such as echolocation) and reproduction patterns occurring throughout the ocean. If they can’t communicate properly in the water, they can’t survive. Marine mammals like dolphins and whales are especially affected by this issue. They rely on these methods and instincts for survival, and when disrupted, the results can be quite damaging. On top of that, constant noise can also cause hearing damage and stress for marine life, leading to physiological problems and difficulties with reproduction. The worst part about noise pollution is that we can’t even clean it up, unless we move away from the ocean completely.
A quick biology lesson: plastic is not biodegradable. When plastic ends up in the ocean, it’s broken down into microscopic pieces. Imagine a water bottle floating in the water, but it’s separated into millions of tiny pieces. The problem with that? You can’t pick it up, you can’t even see it! The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a collection of these pieces twice the size of Texas. It was discovered by Charles Moore, a science researcher and captain, in 1997 as he sailed that part of the ocean. While the idea of a great garbage patch sounds like a giant floating island of trash, it’s mostly just microscopic debris pieces in the water, with some other bigger pieces such as fishing nets, fishing line and buoys. It is not easily visible, especially the microscopic debris, but it appears to make the water look cloudy. All of this debris has been collected by the current of the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, found between the coast of California and Hawaii. And all of this debris isn’t just floating near the surface of the water. It is estimated that about 70% of all marine debris sinks to the bottom of the ocean, making a difficult clean up job even more difficult. Speaking of clean up, you may wonder about the efforts to clean up the garbage patch. The sad answer is that since the patch remains in international waters, no country wants to take on the expensive and difficult job of cleaning it up. Only 20% of the debris comes from cargo ships and oil rigs, while 80% comes from the land, mainly North America and Asia. Even though they are a main factor, they still do not want to take on the job. Only private organizations are attempting this great clean up process, and it isn’t easy at all. Considering how small most of the debris is, trying to just collect it all would also gather up the microscopic organisms that live in the water and are essential to the ocean’s ecosystem. To do an effective job, scientists must create a screen or filter able to collect the plastics without harming any organisms.
A Dutch organization named the Ocean Cleanup, which aims to clean up plastic and other debris in the ocean, seems to be the only ones stepping up to the plate. It took years of planning to gain a reliable plan and develop the technology needed to do so. They have been working and planning since 2012 to take on this project, and plan to begin their efforts sometime next year. They are planning on sending fifty screens into the ocean, weighed down by anchors. Each screen is a little over a half a mile in length. These screens will move a little slower than the ocean currents, trapping the plastics as they go. The Ocean Cleanup at first predicted they would be able to clean about half of the patch in 10 years, costing about $320 million. Now, they believe they can achieve that in five years, costing significantly less than that. To earn more money to fund the project, they are going to recycle the plastic they collect and sunglasses, chairs, etc. to sell. This project will take humongous amounts of time and money, but the benefit is more than worth it, and we owe it to the ocean to treat it right.
In a world filled with pollution and sadness, it is up to us to clean it up and make things right. Pollution of the ocean affects not only the billions of plants and animals, but us as well. There’s no reason that we shouldn’t address this problem and work harder to fix it. We only have one ocean, one planet. These issues are part of the reason I am looking to study marine biology in college. I want to make a difference in the ocean, whether it be picking up trash on a beach, or helping a turtle that’s caught in a net. I’ve valued the ocean all my life, so it’s only fitting that I devote part of my life to helping it.
