The Causes of Ocean Pollution and the Need for Humans to Save Marine Life

For many years, ocean pollution has been a problem, but recently it has been getting worse. In the past 60 years, a staggering amount of waste has entered the ocean each year. The products people produce eventually end up in the ocean which is caused by dumping and runoff through drains. The main causes of ocean pollution are oil, solid garbage, and toxic chemicals. For these reasons, humans need to have more respect for marine life and work together to keep the oceans clean.

Oil spills cause a lot of damage to the marine environment. Though the oil spills are destructive, they only cause about 12% of the total pollution. When the fish are exposed to oil, the adult fish could experience reduced growth, enlarged livers, change in heart and respiration rates, fin erosion, and reproduction impairment. Oil spills are toxic to not just marine animals, but also birds who eat the fishes who have been exposed to the oil. The birds also can ingest oil when they clean themselves, thus poisoning themselves. There are many advertisements about animals in danger because of oil, for example, Dawn dish soap has shown animals covered in oil and their soap cleaning them. If people would care about oil spills as much as they care about Netflix shows then people could prevent future spills.

Another cause of pollution is solid garbage, meaning glass bottles, plastic bags, shoes, boxes, etc. If those materials are not properly disposed of, then it can go to the sea and hurt marine animals. As an example, turtles eat jellyfish and highly mistake plastic six-pack rings as food. When the turtle tries to eat the rings is chokes the turtles, causing death from suffocation. Other plastic materials, such as plastic bags, have blocked the breathing passageways and stomachs of marine animals. Even though the garbage goes to the ocean, it often returns to the shore leaving this ocean pollution to become land pollution. To fix this problem, people can easily cut the six pack plastic rings and reduce the amount of trash by not littering.

Toxic chemicals released into the ocean is the last major cause of pollution. Man-made chemicals contaminate even the tiniest marine animals. Once again, these chemicals end up in the ocean because of deliberate dumping. For example, in Mexico there is a location where people can dump waste into a body of water, thus rendering the water useless and contaminated. When people deliberately dump chemicals in the ocean, it is not considered that the ocean will not dilute or dispose of the toxins of the chemical. Toxic chemicals can have different effects on different species because of the high or low contamination levels the animals have been exposed to. Chemical pollution has a high effect on marine life and clean water is needed in order for the creatures to survive.

If humans had more respect for marine and land animals, then the decrease in animal population would not be high. Pollutants, such as oil spills, solid garbage, and toxic chemicals are the biggest threat to marine life. The environment has gone through tremendous damages, so working together to help save the marine lives would be the least citizens could do. It is sad to see innocent animals die because of selfish humans. There is a need in the community to save the sea creatures and it should be done sooner than later.

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