Environmental Issues: Ocean Pollution and Marine Protection - Essay Example

Ocean pollution The ocean is a beautiful creation of God; most of the earth is covered in water and every living organism needs water to survive. Unfortunately, most of human beings have polluted the ocean in one way or another, and are always careless in what they throw in the oceans. Ocean pollution is a serious environmental issue. Even though there have been regulations and laws passed to stop the pollution of the ocean, it is still a really major problem for many years. Ocean pollution is one of the major problems globally and many scientists, non- governmental organization, and many other concerned bodies have raised many concerned on the issue of marine pollution. The questions we need to answer in this research are what is ocean pollution, some of the causes and lastly how can it e reduced. Ocean pollution can be said pilferage of foreign substances which are not healthy to aquatic life into the ocean, the pollution of the ocean affect the aquatic life in the ocean directly and to some extent affect human beings indirectly. Is important for people to learn more about ocean pollution and may be able to understand its effect and in turn take proper care of the ocean as a gift from God hence be a blessing rather than a problem to us. Before we continue it is essential also to define the meaning of toxic waste. Toxic waste can be said to be harmful or poisonous substance which are dumped into the ocean and they are harmful to animals and plants life. Toxic substances are the most harmful substances which affect aquatic life and can easily be passed down through the food chain and soon be our source of food as sea food. Toxic material enters into the ocean by leaking into the sea either through landmines, farms inputs, landfills and dumps. Metals from the factories and chemicals from the farms are very dangerous for both human and aquatic lives. Among the biggest contributors of ocean pollution, are majorly large corporations and companies, they pollute the ocean by using an unbelievable amount of water to make their products. The natural Resource Defense Council says, “More than four out of every ten gallons of water used in the United States are used for industrial purposes”.  Sadly, most of the water they use is dumped back into the ocean. And of course, the water they dump in is not clean because it mostly contains harmful chemicals and toxins such as mercury, which is a common global pollutant that is constantly being deposited into our oceans just about every second.  Mercury exposure can cause severe human health problems, including immune system suppression, neuron developmental delays on children. The human health data states that 300,000-600,000 children in the United States are born each year with blood levels of mercury (Seli, Par.1). In addition, Mercury poisoning is connected to Parkinson and Attention Deficit Disorder in children.  A lot of the tuna that we consume has mercury, and the majority of the consumers are unaware of it.  According to the U.S Environmental Protection Agency, in babies, mercury affects the growing brain and nervous system. Moreover, it has in impact on cognitive thinking, memory, attention, and language. Apart from large companies in manufacturing sector, farmers are also other major contributor to ocean pollution through chemicals release into the ocean. Third major contributors are human activities like beaching where human beings who are going to the beach has either tourist do not take care of the beach by either dropping beans into the ocean hence making the sea unclean. Dumping of waste solid materials is not good for the sake of marking good safety in our oceans. Many people more so who are involved in marine fishing things that presences of toxic substances in the ocean kills many fish population. One of the most dangerous chemical in sea pollution is lead which is very dangerous both to human life and animals in the ocean. Lead is the most dangerous chemicals and can cause very many complications like brain defect, kidneys malfunction, many studies has shown that lead can cause birth complication. In most cases when the boat is turned on in sea water, there are pollution coming from exhaust pipe and spill of diesel into the water, this kind of pollution is also dangerous to lives in the sea, many aquatic life are being lost so there is need to control this dangerous pollution which endanger lives of plants, animals and even human beings. The boat engine sometimes ends up giving out a lot of gasoline which pollutes the water and ends up killing animals in the sea. This is situation where waste materials are being dumped into the sea; they include dumping of plastic materials, human waste and remains, water from bathing or some people are bathing into the ocean, ground up garbage. Some of the dumping took place very many years back but still remains into the sea up to date. Most of the dumping takes place when the sewer pipe releases the waste into the large water bodies then reaches the ocean, these wastes are majorly from the industries in the industrial town and major manufacturing centers, and some are also coming from the people who are dwelling around the ocean. Natural Resource Defense Council says, “More than four out of every ten gallons of water used in the United States are used for industrial purposes”.  Sadly, most of the water they used is dumped back into the ocean. And of course, the water they dump in is not clean because it mostly contains harmful chemicals and toxins such as mercury, which is a common global pollutant that is constantly being deposited into our oceans just about every second.  Mercury exposure can cause severe human health problems, including immune system suppression, neurodevelopment delays on children. We need to stop this dumping of the waste materials into the ocean. Waste water can be defined as the runoff rain water which ends up in Either Rivers, lakes and ocean. Disposal of waste water is a big problem which needs considerable attention from the environmentalist and proper care needs to be taken. Whenever any amount of pollution enters into the ocean it causes damage to the lives in the ocean and to those outside the ocean. Another way major companies contribute to the ocean pollution is through oil spillage, and it is one of the most deadly of all the toxins that enter into the ocean. According to Abhijit Naik, and authors from the website buzzle.com, there are different categories of oil which spills into the ocean, for example,  over 700 tons is considered medium-sized spills (7-700 tons) and small spills  is considered  less than 7 tons. On an average there are 3.4 oil spill incidents annually, but nevertheless, even just one major spill is a hazard for our marine organisms.  According to World Watch Institute, “Low-level oil contamination can kill larvae and cause disease in marine life”. Sadly, a lot of the innocent animals in our ocean suffer from these spills, giving them no other alternative but to ingest the oil leading them to slow painful death. Thousands of these marine animals are coated with the oil and it’s only a matter of time that they get rescued or die as well.  There have been many big oil disasters but one of the biggest disasters in the history of the United States is the explosion at BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico that occurred on April 20, 2010.  Unfortunately, an estimated 171 million gallons of oil was released into the gulf. It was a scary eventful time, no one knew when the spilling would stop, a lot of fisherman was left with no work and a lot of business that had resorts and hotels suffered drastically financially due to the oil on the beach. Most of the beaches affected by the oil were closed for weeks. Thankfully the oil spill eventually stopped but by the time it did a lot of damage was made.  An author from the book Oceana named Ted Danson said a very powerful quote that I think everyone should keep in mind and reconsider, he said, “When it comes to the risks and ramifications of drilling for oil, each wake-up call is more devastating than then last”. However, the big oil spill disaster was obviously a huge problem, but not only the oil spill is a major problem; Nevertheless, accumulation of plastic in the water is a never ending environmental concern. Billions of careless people all over the world who use are beaches every day throw their trash on the sand or in the water without even thinking the consequences it may have on their lives.  My good friend who is part of the environmental club for her school, go to the beach every week along with other students, and pick up hundreds of trash on the sand, most of the trash is a hazard to the ocean waters and the organisms living in it. The numerous trash and plastic dumped onto the beach and into the water will eventually cause the marine animals to choke on the plastic. Most of the plastic in the ocean will lead to toxic compounds into organisms and ecosystems.  In some areas of the world, beaches are frequently closed due to the amount of bacterial contamination from sewage that washes up to shore.  In most third world countries the pollution is extremely bad, and it is a shame because those countries have rich agriculture. One of the easy or safety which should be taken in oil pollute on is by replacing oil absorbent inserts which are under the engines which will help to reduce spillage into the ocean, also they should be replaced with highly saturated absorbent contaminated materials, they should also keep on changing oil filters throughout the time they are using the motors in the ocean. The engine oil containers should be tightened all through to ensure that there are no spillages of the oil into the ocean. The oil bilge pump should also not be displayed bodies at all the time. If the players can consider all the above factors then we will manage to control oil spillage into the ocean hence controlling ocean pollution. International bodies have also come up with the laws which will help in reducing the marine pollution; these laws will help if properly implemented by the concerned individuals and bodies. The laws which has been established to help in controlling the ocean pollution like the EPA did develop federal laws that directly help in controlling the marine debris from land waste and also help in implementing of the international agreement (interagency Marine debris committee report of 2000) Beach act which amended in clean water act in 2000 is majorly designed to reduce the risk of getting diseases to the people who uses the costal environmental recreation site. This Act allows the EAP to give awards on the implementation of the entire project at the beach.ly states those territories, states and all nations are supposed come up with the list of impaired waters, they are list of polluted waters and of low quality, they are supposed to come up with jurisdiction to establish the way on how to rank the waters in order of priorities. (MS4, NPDES 2010) Clean water Act under section 303(d) of the Act clear. By building oil absorbent sweep which will help to clean up the oil which has spilled off the boat into the ocean in this way the boat pollution will be highly reduced. Another way of controlling boat pollution is by building up oil absorbent booms which will come with oil water repellant which will help to reduce water pollution through boat. These absorbent booms are very important in controlling water or ocean pollution by boat owners. (American Biology Teacher 73.8 (2010) Human waste and dumping of materials can be achieved by proper construction of sewer lines which will help to control t he spillage of these waste in a proper way and controlling them properly. Dumping of materials should be managed properly either by having proper dumping sites and disposal mechanism which are healthy and reliable. People leaving near the large water bodies needs to be barred from bathing from the ocean by proper legislation and other mechanisms which are friendly to all parties involved. This is also can be achieved by implementing the coastal zone Act Reauthorization of 1990 of resource pollution prevention Act. Public awareness of the effect of pollution in the ocean needs to be considered as only information is the powerful too through which ignorance, poverty, and improper responsibilities can be eliminated in the society. People perishes because of lack of knowledge give them knowledge then they will stop perishing. Unsustainable fishing activities have also contributed to depletion of fish in the ocean. Over 76% of fishing grounds have been exploited and leaves no fish to be exploited further. Beaches have not become favorite only for tourist destination but also nice place for many developers for hotel and residential settlement which gives danger to the aquatic lives in the ocean. The ocean based laws like ocean plastic pollution Act, control and research Act (33 U.S.and 1914-33 U.S.C of 1915) These shipping companies has become a big threat to aquatic lives has sea has become big super high way for the ships which transit good to different destinations in the world. Conclusion Due to careless behavior and act of human beings, ocean pollution continues and without any mercy the human beings continue to carelessly pollute the environment. We need to start acting in order to stop human beings from this careless act and misconduct we experience daily in our lives. Laws need to be enacted and implemented accordingly with harsh penalties to law breakers. For examples companies which continues to release untreated waters into the water bodies needs to be burned from trading with huge fines. If this is done then many people will fear the consequences of polluting the environment and concentrate in conserving instead. The issue of pollution has continued so much due to relaxed rules and regulation and also due to enactment of laws with loop holes which can be maneuvers easily. World corruption has also contributed to the relaxedness of the law hence continuo’s human misbehavior with the environment.  Many years ago, people would have never thought that the ocean would need to be saved urgently in some way or another. People would wonder on how an earth mostly ocean water can be affected by their own actions. There are so many different ways to clean our beaches which will help save the marine life, our health and our earth.  Creating organizations to teach the public on the different ways to recycle and explaining them the hazards of polluting. Doing beach clean-ups every week, kayaking clean-up can save a humans life and also an animal’s life. Also, concerts, conferences and government action can help spread the word around.  Teaching children at a young age the different ways to recycle in a fun way can be a great idea also. For example making hats out of t-shirts, this was taught at an event that I attended with many environmental organizations. If we put time and effort to learn the steps into keeping this earth clean and telling others, keeping the ocean clean would mean a much healthier planet. Having uncontaminated water would mean eating healthy seafood which will make healthier people. Jobs that require monitoring and cleaning the beaches would help the economy a great deal amount. Having clean oceans give people a good place to do their recreations.  Many people do not clean the beaches because they think it is too expensive, but in reality the long-term effects will be way more expensive and hurt our sea animals, human health and our planet overall.  We have a responsibility to clean our planet; it is the simple steps we take that will make a huge difference to this generation and other generations to come. Proper implementation of these laws and treaties, and international agreement like marine protection, research and sanctuary Act, will play an important role in reducing and preventing marine debris, plastic pollution and other marine pollution which are experience in the marine life. Work Cited EPA united state agency environmental protection Agency Brander, Susanne M., Rachel E. Fontana, eta al. "The Ecotoxicology of Plastic Marine Debris.” American Biology Teacher 73.8 (2011): 474-78. Print. 25 Oct. 2011 "Health Effects | Mercury | US EPA." US Environmental Protection Agency. 01 Oct. 2010. Web. 22. 2011. . Naik, Abhijit. "Ocean Pollution Facts." Buzzle Web Portal: Intelligent Life on the Web. 28.Sep. 2011. < http://www.buzzle.com/articles/ocean-pollution-facts.html> Natural Resources Defense Council – The Earth’s Best Defense | NRDC. 2011. Web. 15 Nov. 2011 . Peter Bonenberger. "Pollution Facts." Keep Nature Beautiful: Nature Conservation Restoration, Nature News" Bear Springs Blossom Nature Conservation, 2002. Web. 11 Oct. 2011. Selin, Noelle E., Elsie M. Sunderland, et al. "Sources of Mercury Exposure for U.S. Seafood Consumers: Implications for Policy."Environmental Health Perspectives 118 (2009). Print. 25 Oct. 2011 Worldwatch Institute. 2011. Web. 15 Nov. 2011. . Read More