Ocean Pollution

Marine pollution is a mixture of trash and chemicals which comes mainly from the land and is washed or blown into the oceans. There are two main types of pollution which occur in the oceans, chemical contamination, and marine trash. Chemical contamination occurs when human activities, such as farming, cause runoff which leaks into the ocean. One of the main occurrences of chemical contamination is when fertilizer used on farms leaks into waterway which run into the ocean. Marine trash is the other major source of ocean pollution. It covers all manufactured products, mostly plastic, which find their way into the ocean. Some of the causes which contribute to this are littering, storm winds and poor waste management. As stated by National Geographic, 80% of all marine trash comes from land. The most common types of marine trash are plastic products such as shopping bags, drink bottles, food wrappers, straws, and bottle caps. Plastic waste is particularly problematic as it can take hundreds of years to decompose and endangers sea life.

Only 5% of ocean trash is visible on the surface, making it a substantial threat for all marine life. Many animals become tangled in the litter and some even mistake items for food and try to consume them. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which is in the North Pacific Ocean, is a key example of significant ocean pollution. The debris accumulates because it is not biodegradable and poses a danger to marine life. The animals which live in this area regularly ingest litter mistaking it for food. For example, albatrosses mistakenly feed their youth resin pellets, believing them to be eggs, which causes their organs to rupture. Sadly, it is estimated that around half of the world’s turtles have eaten plastic at some point in their lives. Plastic ingestion leads to a decrease of storage levels in the stomach which causes starvation and death. Smaller creatures consume plastic particles, known as microplastics. Microplastics, which are added to many beauty products such as toothpaste and face washes are too small to catch in water filtration systems, which leads to them finding their way into waterways and endangering animals. Microplastics are defined as plastics which have a diameter of less than 5 millimeters and are absorbed into consumer’s tissues and regularly detected in creatures big and small. Microplastics are slowly working their way up the food chain and even humans consume them. Ingesting microplastics poses a serious threat to our health as they release a variety of toxins into our bodies.