Posted On: 2022-03-17 23:55:37
Imagine your house filled with other's plastic waste, garbage and other waste products. Wouldn't this scenario make you angry? It is not even your waste? Hygiene, we shouldn't even go there! Will it be a liveable situation? Instead of bread, plastics are being served! Water replaced by oil!! Let us not get in the feeling of being at home! Because you won't be feeling homely at all!! Now understand this, we are those "others" who are invading the homes of the marines.
Marine pollution is a combination of chemicals and trash, most of which comes from land sources and is washed or blown into the ocean. It also occurs when substances used or spread by humans, such as industrial, agricultural and residential waste, particles, noise, excess carbon dioxide or invasive organisms enter the ocean and cause detrimental effects there. This pollution impacts damage to the environment, the health of all marine organisms, and monetary structures worldwide.
Oceans, which hold 70 percent of our planet's surface, play a pivotal role in the health of our planet and those who inhabit it. Unfortunately, our oceans are contaminated! Many factors are causing ocean pollution. Of all the facts, there is one consistent and prominent cause: HUMANS!! Most pollution in our oceans begins on land Initiated by humans. Here are some of the major causes of marine pollution:
Pollution can enter the ocean directly. Sewage or polluting imports flow through sewage, rivers, or drainages directly into the ocean. This is often how minerals and substances from mining centres find their way into the ocean. The release of other chemicals into the ocean’s ecosystem leads to reductions in oxygen levels, the decay of plant life, and a severe decline in the quality of the seawater itself. As a result, all levels of oceanic life, plants and animals, are highly affected. Nonpoint source pollution comes from a variety of different locations and sources. The result of this is runoff, which occurs when rain or snow moves pollutants from the ground into the ocean. For instance, after a heavy rainstorm, water flows off roads into the ocean, taking oil left on streets from cars with it.
As excess debris in the ocean slowly degrades over many years it utilises oxygen to do so, resulting in less oxygen in the ocean. Low levels of oxygen in the ocean lead to the death of ocean animals such as penguins, dolphins, whales and sharks.
Excess nitrogen and phosphorus in seawater also cause oxygen depletion. When a great deal of oxygen insufficiency occurs in an area of the ocean, it can become a dead zone where no marine life can survive.
Eutrophication
Because of Sewage, there is an excess of chemical nutrients, mainly nitrates and phosphates in the water, which leads to eutrophication or nutrient pollution. Eutrophication decreases the level of oxygen, reduces the quality of water, makes the water inhabitable for marine life, affects the breeding process within the marine life and increases the primary productivity of the marine ecosystem.
Some of the manufacturing plants in some parts of the world release toxic waste into the ocean, including mercury. While it is intentionally being released into the sea, industrial waste also contributes to ocean pollution, as well as plastic products. According to Ocean Conservancy, eight million metric tons of plastic goes into our oceans every year.
Toxins such as pesticides, DDT, PCBs, furans, TBT, radioactive waste, phenols, and dioxins get accumulated in the tissue cells of the marine lifeforms and lead to bioaccumulation hampering the life underwater and sometimes leading to a mutation in aquatic life forms.
Ships are major contributors to ocean pollution, especially when crude oil spills occur. Crude oil lasts for years in the ocean and is difficult to clean up.
Plastics
The ever-growing dependence of the human population on plastic has filled the oceans and the land, it consists of 80 percent of the debris found in the oceans. Plastic dumped and found in the oceans are dangerous for marine life forms and wildlife, as sometimes it strangles and chokes them to death. The rising levels of plastic dumps found in the oceans are suffocating, ingesting, and entangling life underwater as well as above it. Many types of debris (including some plastics) do not float, so they are lost deep in the ocean. Plastics that do float tend to collect in large “patches” in ocean gyres. The Pacific Garbage Patch is one example of such a collection, with plastics and microplastics floating on and below the surface of swirling ocean currents.
Atmospheric pollution, which refers to objects carried by the wind to the ocean, is a big problem. Items such as plastic bags and styrofoam containers become suspended in the water and don’t decompose.
Deep-sea ocean mining causes pollution and disruption at the lowest levels of the ocean. Drilling for substances such as cobalt, zinc, silver, gold and copper creates harmful sulfide deposits deep in the ocean causing a disturbance in the ocean balance.
Sea creatures are common victims of ocean pollution. Oil spills, for instance, will ensnare and suffocate marine animals by interpenetrating their gills. When the oil gets into seabird feathers, they may not be able to fly or feed their young. Animals that aren’t killed by crude oil may suffer from cancer, behavioural modifications and become unable to reproduce.
Marine animals also mistake small plastic debris for food or become entangled in or strangled by plastic bags and discarded fishing nets. Animals most vulnerable to harm from plastic debris in the ocean include dolphins, fish, sharks, turtles, seabirds and crabs.
Oil spill floats on the surface of the water and deters sunlight from reaching marine plants and affects the process of photosynthesis. Skin irritation, eye irritation, lung and liver problems can impact marine life over a long period. Chemicals used in industries and agriculture get washed into the rivers and from there are brought into the oceans. These chemicals do not get dissolved and sink at the bottom of the ocean. Small animals ingest these chemicals and are later eaten by large animals, which then affects the whole food chain.
Pollutants in the ocean make their way back to humans. When small organisms that consume microplastics are eaten by larger animals, the toxic chemicals then become part of their tissues. In this way, the microplastic disintegration migrates up the food chain, eventually becoming part of the food that humans eat. When the toxins in polluted animals get deposited in human tissue, it can lead to long-term health conditions, cancer and birth defects.
There are 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic debris in the ocean. Of that, 269,000 tons float on the surface, while some four billion plastic microfibers per square kilometre litter the deep sea. This is a fact! We, humans, are not only responsible for this pollution but also responsible for marine life. It will take all of us to ensure that the "home" of these marine lives are not polluted by us "the others".
Author : Lubdha Dhanopia
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