It was thought for a very long time that the ocean could handle anything that was put into it. The ocean is so massive that people believed it would dilute any harmful and unnatural substance that was placed in it. However today we know that this is not the case. The ocean’s ecosystem is deteriorating at an alarming rate and is slowly dying. As humans we have been gradually murdering seventy percent of the surface of the earth by throwing just about anything harmful and man-made including radioactive waste, trash, garbage, chemicals, and heavy metals into the ocean for centuries. Now these proverbial tides are turning; since the 1970s there have been worldwide movements to stop the destruction of our oceans. In 1975 the United Nations made it illegal to dump waste and trash into the ocean. To enforce this new world wide law “The International Maritime Organization was given responsibility for this and a protocol was finally adopted in 1996, a major step in the regulation of ocean dumping” (marinebio.org). Now because of this international law the amount of hazardous material dumped into the ocean every year has decreased at a significant rate every year. There are many manmade materials and substances polluting the oceans and they all have a detrimental effect on the oceans and their ecosystems.
There are thousands of different types of hazardous and deadly materials that make their way into the worlds’ oceans every year, but these substances can be divided into several different categories. These categories are radioactive material, sewage, oil, trash and garbage, fertilizers, chemicals, and heavy metals. According to the Marinebio Conservation Society, radioactive material comes from “the nuclear power process, medical use of radioisotope, research use of radioisotopes and industrial uses” (marinebio.org). Sewage consists of wastewater from homes and cities, which contains human excrement and any other materials that are washed into the sewers. A substance that is more deadly than sewage that is polluting the ocean is oil, which comes from tankers and offshore refineries. Out of all the things that are polluting the ocean, trash and garbage makes up a large majority of it. There are “trillions of decomposing plastic items and trash” that is currently floating around in the ocean (NationalGeographic). This trash is basically anything that we use in our daily lives that gets thrown out or disposed of, from reusable plastics to chairs to clothing. Another substance that is damaging the ocean is fertilizers. Fertilizers are used by farmers and in large quantities, they are basically chemicals used to help plants grow. Eventually the fertilizers make their way into the ocean. Another substance that is similar to fertilizers is chemicals, this consists of such things as pesticides, herbicides detergents and basically any other substance that is unnatural and artificially made (NationalGeographic). A final hazardous material that has made its way into the ocean unnaturally is heavy metals. Heavy Metals are such things as arsenic, copper, lead, and zinc that are dug out of the ground and made into things (NationalGeographic). All of these substances are currently in the oceans ecosystem and causing damage.
All of these hazardous substances just don’t magically appear in the ocean, they end up there through many different ways. Three ways that result in almost all ocean pollution are oil spills, agricultural runoff, and dumping. When someone thinks of oil spills they might think that this is something that doesn’t happen that often; however this is not the case. The Environmental Encyclopedia states that “from 2000 to 2008, an average of 24 tons of oil has been spilled annually” (OpposingViewpoints). Also there are major events such as the Exxon Valdez oil spill and Deepwater Horizon drilling rig accident. When a tanker ship for Exxon Valdez ran aground in Alaska it leaked almost 750,000 barrels of crude oil into the water for several days. The Deepwater Horizon accident occurred when an explosion on an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico “triggered an oil leak on the ocean floor, for 87 days oil spewed into the Gulf” (OpposingViewpoints). This incident resulted in over 200 million gallons of crude oil to be released into the ocean.
Another way that hazardous material gets into the ocean is through agricultural runoff. According to Marinebio Conservation Society agricultural runoff is when harmful materials and chemicals such as “pesticides, fertilizers, and other chemicals used on farms contaminate nearby rivers that flow into the ocean”, which results in these harmful chemicals making their way into the ocean and its ecosystem (marinebio.org). Large amounts of these extremely harmful and deadly chemicals are used on just about every farm and “40 percent of fertilizers used in the United States end up in waterways and coastal marine environments.” (OpposingViewpoints). These chemicals and fertilizers have an immense impact and effect on the oceans ecosystems.
By far the most significant form of ocean pollution is dumping. Dumping results in just about anything that is hazardous being placed in the ocean by the ton every year. Anything from sewage and trash to chemicals and fertilizers to dredged material to industrial and nuclear waste ends up in the ocean as a result of dumping. Up until the 1970s dumping wasn’t illegal. The Marinebio Conservation Society states that “in the 1970s, 17 million tons of industrial waste was legally dumped into the ocean”; now dumping is illegal and it has decreased but it still happens every day all over the world (marinebio.org). There are still dozens of countries that illegally dump raw sewage and other waste into the ocean daily, despite the fact that there is an international ban on ocean dumping. These three different methods are responsible for just about everything that is hazardous and polluting the ocean to be deposited into the ocean and cause further damage.
It is not impossible to figure out all of these hazardous materials and chemicals that are dumped into the ocean have a serious and immensely damaging impact on the ocean and its ecosystem. Every one of these pollutants kills marine life and damages the habits and areas that they live in. Fertilizers and sewage robs water of its oxygen, causing uninhabitable areas and killing marine life. Fertilizers put extra nutrients into the water which cause “massive blooms of algae that rob the water of oxygen, leaving areas where little or no marine life can exist” (NationalGeographic). It is because of these algae blooms that over 400 areas around the world are completely dead and can no longer support life. Sewage and fertilizers that have ended up in the ocean have and will continue to kill entire ecosystems and habitats for marine life. As a result of agricultural runoff from fertilizers “55 percent of the rivers in the United States are, as of 2013 considered in poor health” (OpposingViewpoints). Fertilizers not only kill marine life but they also damage waterways and ocean environments all over the world.
Another leading pollutant that kills hundreds of thousands of animals a year is trash and garbage disposed of into the ocean. There is currently over a trillion pieces of trash and plastic currently floating around in the ocean. According to National Geographic ocean currents have taken much of this trash and pooled it all into one massive area know as the Pacific Trash Vortex, which is estimated to be the size of Texas. Because of all the trash that has been deposited into the ocean over the years, an entire massive island has been created (NationalGeographic). All of this trash is often mistaken for food by fish, seabirds and other marine life. This has resulted in of over one million dead seabirds and 150,000 marine mammals each year. (OpposingViewpoints). When they eat this trash and plastic it results in a slow death due to lack of proper nutrients. Radioactive waste is also very deadly because it can stay radioactive for decades, which can kill animals from radiation poisoning. Many of the hazardous materials that are polluting the ocean “are consumed by small marine organisms and introduced into the global food chain” (NationalGeographic). Not only are these pollutants killing marine life and the habitats that they live in, but they are are also harming us. When marine animals eat these harmful chemicals and substances they stay in their bodies, and when other animals eat those animals the chemicals are again transferred to them. When people consume some marine life there is still sometimes left over traces and amounts of these dangerous substances that humans are then consuming.
Here is a very powerful video that shows what ocean pollution does to marine life:
Overall there are many different man made pollutants that enter the oceans and cause massive amounts of damage. As humans just about everything we create from radioactive material, sewage, oil, trash and garbage, fertilizers, and chemicals ends up into the ocean. These substances are deposited into the ocean through ways such as agricultural runoff, dumping, and oil spills. Once these hazardous materials are in the ocean they can destroy entire ecosystems and kill millions of marine animals that require the ocean to live. Ocean pollution has and will continue to have a great effect on the ocean’s life and ecosystem.
Here are my sources:
Picture at the top: http://www.shft.com/thumbs/540×308/files/plastic-pollution-ocean-9725.jpg
Video at the bottom: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3XGUnjDRUQ
http://ocean.nationalgeographic.com/ocean/explore/pristine-seas/critical-issues-marine-pollution/
http://marinebio.org/oceans/ocean-dumping/
This is really an important posting, since I have volunteered to clean trash along ocean lines for several years. Recently, I read an article talks about micromotors can help to reduce ocean pollution. Scientists at the University of California, San Diego have developed tiny motors eve smaller than a human hair that can autonomously move in the ocean to convert CO2 into a usable solid form. This can a significant progress in preventing ocean pollution. The more detailed contents about this new technologies can be found here: http://news.discovery.com/tech/micromotors-could-help-reduce-ocean-pollution-150928.htm
You wrote about the ocean containing arsenic, copper, zinc ect. which is concerning to me. I wonder if the ocean is even safe to swim in if it is containing these properties.I know that the animals living in the ocean are hurting, but I am also wondering about us because we swim and consume fish from bodies of water that could be contaminated. I read in this article that red blooms, or algal blooms, can be dangerous to us. They can cause diarrhea, vomiting, abdominal pains and sometimes death. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/smartertravel/10-beach-dangers-everyone_b_4717133.html Because of this I am wondering are red blooms dangerous to sea animals too? After reading up on it, they’re actually beneficial for ocean creatures http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/redtide.html. Nice post!