Ocean pollution and how it got there?

Conscious ConsumerPlastic

Have you ever thought about what happens to items that end up in the ocean? Or how all that pollution got there?

Well, the scary fact is that 80% of ocean pollution comes from the land due to human activity.

Some of this is due to irresponsible actions allowing items to go down the gutter/sewers ending up in the ocean or intentional dumping. Let’s go over a few of these categories.

Nonpoint pollution :

Nonpoint pollution is due to different types of chemicals or pesticides entering the ocean due to runoff. Nonpoint source pollution includes runoff from sources such as “septic tanks, cars, trucks, and boats, plus larger sources, such as farms, ranches, and forest areas. Nonpoint source pollution can make river and ocean water unsafe for humans and wildlife. In some areas, this pollution is so bad that it causes beaches to be closed after rainstorms.” Source

Plastic :

Plastic is one of the largest sources of human pollution in the ocean. Every year, 11 million metric tons of plastics enter our ocean on top of the estimated 200 million metric tons that currently circulate through our marine environments. Source

A study done by the University of Cadiz in Spain was published in the journal of Nature Sustainability, stating that “on average across all ocean environments, the top four items were plastic bags, making up 14% of plastic trash (with a margin of error of 8%); bottles, comprising 12%; plastic food containers and cutlery, which accounted for 9%; and wrappers, which also made up 9%.” Source

Other types of plastic pollution can include fishing nets, toys, packaging, and of course microplastics. Learn more about microplastics here.

Chemical contamination :

“This type of pollution occurs when human activities, notably the use of fertilizer on farms, lead to the runoff of chemicals into waterways that ultimately flow into the ocean. The increased concentration of chemicals, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, in the coastal ocean, promotes the growth of algal blooms, which can be toxic to wildlife and harmful to humans.” Source

Ocean noise :

This one might seem unrelated but human noise pollution is having a huge effect on the marine landscape which is causing harm and even killings marine wildlife.

“Consider the incessant din of the roughly 60,000 commercial tanker and container ships that ply the seas at any given time. The underwater racket that results creates a kind of “smog” that reaches nearly every corner of the ocean and shrinks the sensory range of marine wildlife. High-intensity sonar used by the U.S. Navy for testing and training causes some of the same effects—and has been linked to mass whale strandings.

Meanwhile, in the hunt for offshore oil and gas, ships equipped with high-powered airguns fire compressed air into the water every 10 to 12 seconds for weeks to months on end. Traveling as far as 2,500 miles, these deafening seismic blasts disrupt foraging, mating, and other vital behaviors of endangered whales (and may ultimately push some, such as the North Atlantic right whale, to extinction).” Source

Conclusion :

The ocean does not dilute pollution to the point where it disappears. Instead, all these contaminate marine habitats making them toxic and dangerous for the millions of animals that live in the ocean or humans that swim.

So be aware of what you allow down the drain and what chemicals you use or support as these will get washed into the ocean.

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