The ocean makes up 71% of the earth's surface, it being the home to over a billion of marine life. Ocean life is currently at a serious risk due to being exposed to oil spills, plastic pollution, and acidification.
Every year hundreds of millions gallons of oil are spilled into the ocean. These oil spills not only cost millions of dollars to clean up but also affect all ocean life. These ocean oil spills can cause severe damage to the animals living there. The fish can end up with liver damage, messed up fin, reproduction rate and even death. Even the birds are affected by these spills as they feed from the fish in the oceans. This is such a problem, that there are people with a job to specifically clean these animals. One of the most recent big spills was the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Plastic pollution is one of the biggest causes of ocean pollution. Plastic alone makes up 90% of the garbage floating on the ocean's surface. It is said that there are 5.25 trillion items of plastic trash in the ocean. Around 8 million is dumped into the ocean every year, so it's like a garbage truck dumping a load of plastic into the ocean every minute. This plastic pollution also cause more than 100,00 deaths of marine animals and seabirds. …show more content…
People are mislead to think that it's just a giant patch of trash, but it just contains the western patch, and the eastern garbage patch with some debris floating between the two..The Western garbage patch is located near Japan while the eastern garbage patch is located near the west coast of The United States. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is formed by floating debris such as bottles, plastic, fishing nets, etc. around in the ocean and the ocean currents then shifted it all towards each other creating the giant mass. It contains non degradable plastics, sludge and other toxic stuff towards the ocean
Every year hundreds of millions gallons of oil are spilled into the ocean. These oil spills not only cost millions of dollars to clean up but also affect all ocean life. These ocean oil spills can cause severe damage to the animals living there. The fish can end up with liver damage, messed up fin, reproduction rate and even death. Even the birds are affected by these spills as they feed from the fish in the oceans. This is such a problem, that there are people with a job to specifically clean these animals. One of the most recent big spills was the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Plastic pollution is one of the biggest causes of ocean pollution. Plastic alone makes up 90% of the garbage floating on the ocean's surface. It is said that there are 5.25 trillion items of plastic trash in the ocean. Around 8 million is dumped into the ocean every year, so it's like a garbage truck dumping a load of plastic into the ocean every minute. This plastic pollution also cause more than 100,00 deaths of marine animals and seabirds. …show more content…
People are mislead to think that it's just a giant patch of trash, but it just contains the western patch, and the eastern garbage patch with some debris floating between the two..The Western garbage patch is located near Japan while the eastern garbage patch is located near the west coast of The United States. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is formed by floating debris such as bottles, plastic, fishing nets, etc. around in the ocean and the ocean currents then shifted it all towards each other creating the giant mass. It contains non degradable plastics, sludge and other toxic stuff towards the ocean