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Ocean
Pollution, Ocean Garbage and Marine Debris
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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. 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. Always pick
up your trash when you leave the beach. 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.
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Picture of Greenpeace
ship Esperanza at dock in Tromso, Arctic Norway during
oil tanker protest cruise in Barents Sea, North East
Atlantic
Picture #: 097142 |
Image of leatherback
sea turtle hatchling, Dermochelys
coriacea, climbing
through rubbish or marine debris to sea, Dominica,
West Indies, Caribbean, Atlantic
Picture #: 095126 |
Stock photo of
trash as it erodes from an abandoned dumpsite into
the Elkhorn Slew estuary, Monterey, California.
Picture #: 067460 |
Photo of Northern elephant
seal, Mirounga angustirostris, with debris on
beach, Big Sur, California, Pacific Ocean
Picture #: 018760 |
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Picture of a diver during
a reef cleanup operation picking up more rubbish
whilst carrying a net bag full of already collected
rubbish, D'lagoon, North point, Pulau Perhentian
kecil, South China sea, Peninsular Malaysia, Asia
Picture #: 096925 |
Image of Southern sea
otter, Enhydra lutris nereis, pup playing
with a soda can, Monterey, California, Pacific
Ocean, National Marine Sanctuary, endangered species
Picture #: 098267 |
Stock photo of drill
site, part of Prudhoe Bay's industrial oil fields
and sprawling development, Beaufort sea, Arctic coast
of Alaska
Picture #: 100751 |
Picture of California
sea lion,
Zalophus californianus, with wound caused by plastic
neck ring, Monterey, California, Pacific Ocean
Picture #: 094210 |
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Picture of
California sea lions, Zalophus
californianus, drowned in a gill net, Los Coronados
Islands, Baja California, Mexico, Pacific
Picture #: 011647 |
Image of oil spilling
from pipes and polluting a lake near Niznevartovsk,
Khanty Mansiysk, West Siberia, Russia
Picture #: 068834 |
Stock photo of burning
trash at the dump on Barter island, 1002 area of
the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska
Picture #: 100878 |
Photo of ghost or abandoned
fishing net, entangled in coral reef, Kua Bay, Kona,
Hawaii
Picture #: 003888 |
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Picture of trash on
beach. 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 #: 067476 |
Image of a California
sea lion, Zalophus californianus, with fishing
net around neck, Monterey Bay, California, Pacific
Ocean
Picture #: 091186 |
Stock photo of great
blue heron, Ardea herodias, with neck caught in plastic
six pack ring
Picture #: 076888 |
Photo of coal fired
power station at Anadyr, Chukotka, Siberia, Russia.
Picture #: 068822
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Picture of coastal erosion
washing away sand bags used by a former government
dew line site to keep a dump site with possible
toxic PCBs from washing away, Barter Island, 1002
coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge,
Alaska
Picture #: 100872 |
Image of marine debris
from around the world washed up on these beaches
at South Point due to strong wind and current, Big
Island, Hawaii
Picture #: 020917 |
Stock photo of a Hawaiian
spinner dolphin, Stenella longirostris, playing with
plastic bag, Kona, Hawaii, Pacific Ocean
Picture #: 012263 |
Photo of Troll A Oil
and Gas production platform, the largest man made
structure ever to move across the face of the earth.
North sea, Atlantic, Norway
Picture #: 097159 |
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