 |
Ocean
Pollution, Ocean Garbage and Marine Debris
Pictures |
 |
|
Garbage
has always been discarded into the ocean, but since
the 1940s, plastic use has increased dramatically,
resulting in a huge quantity of nearly indestructible,
lightweight material floating in the oceans and eventually
deposited on beaches worldwide. Marine garbage includes
fishing nets, plastics, party balloons, beach toys,
general household garbage. Animals eat this garbage
and it strangles them or blocks their digestive system
causing starvation. Entanglement can also constrict
growth and circulation, causing eventual slow death,
or trap marine animals within large debris, leading
to drowning, starvation or attack by predators. Even
if just attached, it slows the animals’ ability to
move through the water, and animals starve due to
their inability to catch prey. Marine pollution
can start as far away as middle-America. Any toxic
materials that are put into rivers and bodies of
water can flow eventually to the oceans. Run-off
from drains and areas adjacent to the ocean is also
a severe problem, bringing all kinds of materials
into the sea. Toxic pollutants in the ocean have
considerable impacts on plants and animals. Heavy
metal poisoning from elements such as lead and mercury
caused by industry builds up in the tissues of top
predators such as whales and sharks, causing birth
defects and nervous system damage. Dioxins from pulp
and paper mills, and poly-aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH's)
from oil pollution and burning wood and coal cause
cause genetic problems in marine animals. Polychlorinated
biphenyls (PCB’s) from electrical equipment can cause
birth problems in most marine organisms. Sewage can
cause massive nutrient loading in the oceans, which
leads to algal blooms, effectively decreasing the
amount of dissolved oxygen in the water and many
organisms die from lack of oxygen. Sewage also introduces
parasites and bacteria, which can cause beach and
shellfish harvesting closures. Pollution can be
reduced a number of ways. Many communities have beach-clean-up
days. Recycling reduces the amount of trash that
is available to go into the ocean. Care should be
taken to make sure that oil from cars, suds from
washing, and other pollutants do not go down your
storm drain. Any landscaping should be protected
until it is stable so that silt does not get washed
into rivers and streams. Party balloons should be
popped and never released into the air. Always pick
up your trash when you leave the beach.
|
|
 |
 |
 |
Picture of juvenile
gray reef shark, Carcharhinus
amblyrhynchos, victim
of a ghost fishing net, Burma Banks, Thailand, Andaman
Sea
Picture #: 009134 |
Image of dead carp in
Ohio. Water pollution kills many healthy fish like
this species of carp
Picture #: 023279 |
Xray photo of
a dead loggerhead turtle, Caretta
caretta,an endangered species, revealing
a large fishing hook as the cause of death
Picture #: 015779 |
Photo of a plastic trash
bag caught on elkhorn coral, Acropora palmata, and
smothering coral, Freeport, Bahamas. Western Atlantic
Ocean
Picture #: 031975 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Picture of harbor seal,
Phoca vitulina, eating kelp bass from gillnet, Los
Coronados Islands, Baja California, Mexico, Pacific
Ocean
Picture #: 011625 |
Image of olive ridley
sea turtle, Lepidochelys olivacea, tangled
in fishing net, East Pacific Ocean
Picture #: 009306 |
Stock photo of a dead
Southern bluefin tuna, Thunnus
maccoyii, caught in
a tuna pen. All southern bluefin tuna ranching occurs
in a small region offshore of Port Lincoln, South
Australia. This industry was initiated in 1991 and
has now developed to be the largest farmed seafood
sector in Australia.
Picture #: 061775 |
Photo of the skull of
a dead loggerhead turtle, Caretta
caretta. As many as 17 of these turtles
wash up dead as by-catch in the gill-net and long-line
fisheries each day along the Pacific Coast beaches
of Isla Magdalena. Turtle researchers from the NGO
Pro Caguama study are trying to educate fisherman
to the devastation this is causing in loggerhead
populations in the North Pacific Ocean.
Picture #: 026245 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
Picture of
Alaskan sea otter, Enhydra lutris
kenyoni, tangled
in gill net, Prince William Sound, Alaska , Pacific
Ocean
Picture #: 012474 |
Image of humpback whale
with severely injured fluke due to entanglement
with heavy fishing gears or a boat strike, Megaptera
novaeangliae, Hawaii, Pacific Ocean.
Picture #: 029009 |
Stock photo of sperm
whale, Physeter macrocephalus, playing with
plastic bag, Pico Island, Azores, Portugal,
Atlantic Ocean
Picture #: 042693 |
Photo of young male
polar bear, Ursus maritimus, foraging in the dump
near the town of Churchill, Manitoba, Canada
Picture #: 014220 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
Picture of marine debris,
plastics and net, Midway atoll, North West Hawaiian
Islands, Pacific Ocean. A gyre, giant circular ocean
surface current, brings massive amounts of garbage
and ocean debris to these remote islands
Picture #: 040107 |
Image of a dead loggerhead
turtle, Caretta caretta. As many as 17 of
these turtles wash up dead as by-catch in the gill-net
and long-line fisheries each day along the Pacific
Coast beaches of Isla Magdalena. Turtle researchers
from the NGO Pro Caguama study are trying to educate
fisherman to the devastation this is causing in loggerhead
populations in the North Pacific Ocean.
Picture #: 056728 |
Stock photo oil tanker,
Los Angeles harbor, Los Angeles, California, USA
Picture #: 058617 |
Photo of a tractor as
it picks up debris and smooths out parts of Daytona
Beach, Florida. Atlantic Ocean.
Picture #: 065866 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
Picture of a beach sign
warning of sewage contaminated water. Raw sewage
and other pollution from the Tijuana River often
close beaches along Imperial Beach California after
winter storms.
Picture #: 067461 |
Image of a Galapagos
shark, mano in Hawaiian, Carcharhinus
galapagenesis,
with marine debris around its neck, Midway Atoll,
North West Hawaiian Islands, Pacific Ocean
Picture #: 040097 |
Stock photo of beach
debris. After winter storms, raw sewage and every
possible type of floating trash from modern urban
life are flushed down the Tijuana River from Mexico
and ultimately end up in the ocean south of Imperial
Beach San Diego California.
Picture #: 067467 |
Photo of oil and
gas patterns on the surface of a marina at Ketchikan,
Alaska.
Picture #: 067463 |
|
|
|
|
|
