Marine Pollution
Marine Pollution is also known as plastic pollution. Marine pollution affects more than 817 animal species that live in the ocean around the world. Marine pollution is about people throwing stuff that is made from plastic or is plastic into the ocean and sea that can affect the animals that live in them. Like people usually go fishing, throw plastic bottles and other plastic items overboard.
Plastics are the most common element found in oceans today. Plastic is a harmful substance to the environment because it doesn’t break down easily. It’s 1,000 years for a plastic to break down but in the oceans it takes 450 years. But they break down into tiny pieces. Sometimes before plastic can break down, sea animals swallow them or get tangled up in them.
Many ocean and sea animals die because they swallow the plastic which can affect their breathing also if the animals get tangled up in plastic which can cause them drowning and suffocation. Plastic waste kills up to a million seabirds a year, that’s a lot of birds that die. As with sea turtles, when seabirds swallow plastic, it takes up room in their stomach which can sometimes cause suffering.
According to research done by a university ( Georgia ) about 18 billion pounds of plastic trash ends up in our oceans. About 14 billion pounds of plastic is dumped every year by garbage trucks into the oceans which probably weigh about 47 million blue whales. Also if you throw stuff in the river or lake they usually end up in the ocean too. There are dead zones in the oceans that have been created by pollution making lives in these zones impossible to live in for plant life and marine. There are about 405 dead zones in the oceans worldwide, that's a lot of dead zones that have been created.
Fish and other marine life can often see the difference between plastic and food. If animals eat plastic they can’t digest it so they starve to death. Most of the trash sinks to the bottom of oceans. What we can’t see could be much worse than what we can see. Most of the garbage actually sinks to the bottom of the oceans.
In some of the most heavily polluted areas in the ocean plastic outweighs plankton six times. Plankton is a source of food for fish and other marine lifes. Did you know that there’s enough plastic in the oceans to circle earth 400 times. Marine pollution is a bad thing for our oceans and the marine lives in the oceans. Everytime we use plastic we should remember to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle plastic. Like we can use paper bags and bags that are made out of cotton that we can use for shopping. By doing this we can save many marine lifes from getting tangled in the plastic which can cause suffering. If we all do this we can help reduce the amount of marine pollution there is in our oceans today.
