Muhammad Magsi



Ocean Pollution IntroThe ocean is by far the most expansive and diverse place on planet Earth. With increasing pollution the ocean has become less diverse and inhabitable for animals. The pollution affecting is ocean is not only caused by oil spills, it is also impacted by waste disposal. The waste that is disposed in the ocean is reaching the shores which does not only affect the marine animals but also land animals since they consider it as food. However, that food is just toxins. The assumptions previously that oceans are big, deep, and well spread out was once the truth. However, the theory regarding disposing of waste materials into the ocean will have close to no effect on animal life is a myth. All four oceans are covered with oil spills, toxic wastes and plastic which are all factors of ocean pollution caused by humans. If companies reuse and recycle their materials, it will benefit the oceans as well as help reduce carbon pollution that caused by climate change.What kind of oil spills are in the ocean?Plastic is the most common element found in the ocean and is also one of the most harmful elements. Plastic is made from oil and we know that it does not break down easily. Another substance that is found commonly in the ocean is oil and it not cleared up easily. Oil is not just a simple substance as it differs in viscosity, volatility, and toxicity. Most types of oils are extremely difficult to clean up however, some are impossible to clean up for example jet fuel or gasoline CITATION Off16 \l 1033 ( Office of Response and Restoration, 2016). The ocean has taken beatings for our mistakes. On May 3, 2015, there was a ship leak of ammonium nitrate. Approximately, 180 tons of ammonium nitrated was leaked into the ocean CITATION Tho15 \l 1033 (Barrabi, 2015). The ammonia from ammonium nitrate not only produced harm to marine animals but was also harmful to humans swimming in Costa Rica. The amount leaked by the ship is not even nearly close to the amount of oil spilled into the ocean over the past few decades.How much garbage is in the ocean?To calculate how much waste is floating around the ocean is nearly impossible. There is no worldwide monitoring used to determine how much waste there is in the ocean and to top it off oceans currents are moving waste around with it. It is estimated that there is roughly 200 000 000 tons of waste in the entire ocean. It is also estimated that about 6 350 000 000 kg is going to be dumped every year into the ocean. Industrial dumping is what causes the most damage to our environment. Merchant ships dump 5.5 million containers of trash per day. It takes plastic about 500 – 1 000 years to photodegrade in the sun light. At that rate there will be 10 times more plastic in the ocean then it has degraded. The great pacific garbage patch is a large gathered amount of plastic that forms an island. The estimated size of the greater garbage patch is somewhere from 700 thousand to 15 million square kilometer CITATION DNe14 \l 1033 (DNews, 2014). How dangerous is it?In one year about one hundred thousand marine animals died due to being tangled. Along with that, over one million sea birds died from plastic. Roughly three hundred thousand dolphins also die yearly. Even through the waste disposed is let go far away from land, eventually the ocean currents brings it back to the shore. At that point the shore is polluted by our disposed waste and results in toxins lying around the shore. With all the waste material that is in the ocean, the ocean can also turn acidic resulting in serious harm to sea animals The toxic materials that are dumped in the ocean can destroy the chemistry, behavior, reproduction and growth of marine animals. Biodiversity is living things on the planet. With the sewage leads decomposing organic matter. The ecosystem is not completely destroyed but it does have an effect to it CITATION Rin \l 1033 (Rinkesh, n.d.).What kind of chemicals are in the ocean?There are variety of toxins in our oceans. Majority of these toxins originate from industrial waste, runoff from farms, urban areas, and wastewaters. Some of the chemicals that exited were originally natural but eventually got mixed with high concentration and other compounds which in result lead to pollutants. Pollutants are mixtures that can affect us in many ways. Some examples of pollutants are plastics, debris from shops, fishing nets, containers, etc.Since a large amount of harmful chemicals enter the ocean, a Clean Water Act was passed along in the 1970s, which stated that the most harmful pollutants cannot go into the ocean but were to be placed elsewhere. However oil pollution from ships and accidental spills occurred at that time. Pollutants produced toxins! These toxins are poisonous to any living organism in the water. The toxins did however create a surplus of organic waste of nitrogen and phosphorus CITATION Mar06 \l 1033 (Marine Pollution: How the Ocean Became a Toxic Waste Dump, 2006). How does this affect the animals in the ecosystem?An ecosystem is all living things in an area that interact with each other and their environment. In an ecosystem each organism plays an important role. With a missing organism in that system, the entire ecosystem can get affected. Biotic members rely on the abiotic factors depending on the rank of the organism CITATION Bus \l 1033 ( BusinessGhana, n.d.). In an ecosystem there are two types of factor abiotic and biotic. Abiotic are non-living things like water, air, solid, etc. Biotic are living things, like animals, plants, and organisms CITATION Abi \l 1033 (Abiotic vs. Biotic, n.d.). Smaller animals consume food which is contaminated. One effect pollution has is havoc. This stimulates plant growth which causes small fishes to die from suffocation due to the lack of oxygen. This is more common in smaller lakes rather than the ocean. This happens because the oxygen cycle is not functioning properly. This a great example of the effects of the ecosystem since the plants aren’t functioning properly, the smaller fishes, begin to die out, when this occurs there is less food for the large fishes which will also lead to death CITATION Thr \l 1033 (Threats to Ecosystems , n.d.). This is a type of chain reaction. With small animals at the bottom of the food chain the more chemicals they consume the more contaminated they are. With animals higher in the food chain they are going to be even more contaminated since they consumed more fishes at the bottom of the food chain which have consumed toxins, as the end result the higher the animal in the food chain the more toxins it will have. What happens to the animal habitat?Animal habitat loss is not only due to human error but also Mother Nature, however we are the greater ones to blame. Hurricanes, typhoons, storms, and tsunamis all are natural but pollution is not. Waste from cities, factories, farms, have wreaked reefs, sea grasses, birds and fishes. This is our problem. Inland dams decrease the nutrients flowing through lakes. This also cuts out routes for fishes to through CITATION Mar2 \l 1033 (Marine Habitat Destruction, n.d.). Fishes cannot tell whether they are in a safe or toxic habitat since the pollution can be confused for food for smaller fishes. The harmful chemicals in the ocean can cause the death of fishes as well. Meanwhile if an oil spills occurs it is almost impossible to clean up, since oil does not become a solution with water. The oil will also block sun light and oxygen from entering the water at the region of the spill. This is also one of the root cause for animal’s death.How does this affect us?Fishes are filled with toxins. The higher the animal is in the food chain the greater toxins it will contain. To add to that the animals are polluted with harmful chemicals that are released into the ocean by us. When we consume seafood we are taking in harmful chemicals like mercury and PCB that were found in the ocean CITATION Mar3 \l 1033 (Hines, n.d.). There are even radioactive materials in the ocean which can be a pathway to our source of food. The more harmful toxins we consume the more goes into our tissue. Looking back at the biology cell units when there are harmful toxins in the body the cell cycle will not go through the proper phases of the cell division. When a cell does not go through the proper phases of the cell cycle a tumor will form. If it’s a malignant tumor the end result will be cancer CITATION Pet15 \l 1033 (Crosta, 2015). This started with us polluting the ocean.How can we avoid this later on?What’s done is done but what’s to do is still an open option. Reducing our carbon footprint and energy usage is one of the most helpful ways to improve climate change of the ocean. This can be done by cycling to places or switching to more ecofriendly bulbs like florescent. Another way is to eat a maintained amount of seafood since fish population is currently decreasing or have other sea food alternatives like sea weed CITATION 10T \l 1033 (10 Things you can do to save the ocean, n.d.)Some others effective ways are by:Using less plastic bags when shopping or taking a reusable bag insteadCleaning up after the beach or shoreSupporting organizations and possibly volunteering to help keep the ocean cleanDon’t litter in the ocean!Bibliography BIBLIOGRAPHY BusinessGhana. (n.d.). What is an Ecosystem? Retrieved from eSchoolToday: of Response and Restoration. (2016, Jan 04). Oil Types . Retrieved from Office of Response and Restoration: Things you can do to save the ocean. (n.d.). Retrieved from National Geographic: vs. Biotic. (n.d.). Retrieved from Diffen: , T. (2015, May 03). Costa Rica Toxic Chemical Spill: Alert Issued After Ship Capsizes, Leaks Ammonium Nitrate. Retrieved from IBT: , P. (2015, September 17). Cancer: Facts, Causes, Symptoms and Research. Retrieved from MNT: . (2014, April 07). How Much Trash Is In The Ocean? . Retrieved from Youtube: , M. (n.d.). Oceans and Human Health. Retrieved from SeaWeb: Habitat Destruction. (n.d.). Retrieved from National Geographic: Pollution: How the Ocean Became a Toxic Waste Dump. (2006, March 01). Retrieved from Mother Jones: . (n.d.). What is Ocean Pollution? Retrieved from Conserve Energy Future: to Ecosystems . (n.d.). Retrieved from enviropol: ................
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