The production of these toxic-filled substances continues to lead the human race on a path of natural destruction; with thousands of animal sea-life dying annually from plastic consumption. It's time we wake up to the fact that our oceans are in need of critical help. How did the plastic get into our oceans to begin with? The oceans are enormous but they are not infinite. Today, as in the past, oceans are being treated as giant disposal areas for all types of refuse (plastics, tins, bottles etc.)
In 2010 ,172 million gallons of oil spilled from a whole on the ocean bed in the Gulf of Mexico. There are four major and significant ways of how the oil is transported to the ocean. The four ways are, oil seeps, consumption, transportation, and extraction. All the ways listed above are harmful and waste our limited amount of oil. Oil seeps accrue when natural seeps emerge from below the sea floor.
There are five main things that affect the ocean and harm it, Whaling, overfishing, factory fishing, global warming, and pollution. Every year the Japanese government kills mink whales. They kill at least eight hundred fifty of these whales. Factory fishing is also a major harm to the ocean. Factories create equipment that destroys species in the ocean.
Indeed, Chaitén was a major concern to both the airline industry and the neighbouring country of Argentina. In the first week of the current eruption, five airplanes encountered eruption-cloud ash, and several sustained significant engine damage. Airports in Chile, Argentina and Uruguay, up to 2,300 km from the volcano, were forced to close or cancel flights. In addition, volcanic ash from the eruption clouds caused ground transportation and health problems in Chile and Argentina. There were several hundred domestic flights in Argentina and Chile and several dozen international flights from Santiago, Chile and Buenos Aires, Argentina cancelled.
After the algae accumulate, it dies, decomposes and depletes the oxygen in the ocean creating a dead zone. Natural elements of climate, weather and change in wind circulation also cause changes in algae growth. In the spring months increased rain, water flow and sunshine increase this algae growth. In the fall tropical storms and hurricanes break up the algae and the cycle repeats again. The largest human cause of dead zones is nutrient run off from abundant use of fertilizers, animal waste and sewage.
Some of the major negative economic effects of natural gas drilling are the enormous amounts of pollutants released into our water sources. With estimates coming close to 50 trillion cubic feet of natural gas sitting in the Marcellus, it’s no wonder companies are willing to drill at any cost to the local water systems and communities. In other words, there is conservatively two trillion dollars in nature gas reserves sitting right under us. The problem with fracking is being able to find an economical and environmentally friendly way to dispose of the waste water. There are approximately thirteen treatment plants used to deal with the waste water that is accumulated by the massive fracking operations all over the state.
The shifting of the earth’s plates in the Indian Ocean on Dec. 26, 2004 caused a rupture more than 600 miles long, displacing the seafloor above the rupture by perhaps 10 yards horizontally and several yards vertically. As a result, trillions of tons of rock were moved along hundreds of miles and caused the planet to shudder with the largest magnitude earthquake in 40 years. Within hours of the earthquake, killer waves radiating from the epicentre slammed into the coastline of 11 Indian Ocean countries, damaging countries from east Africa to Thailand. A tsunami is a series of waves, and the first wave may not be the most dangerous. A tsunami “wave train” may come as surges five minutes to an hour apart.
A process called mass bleaching has also become a danger to coral reefs. Mass bleaching happens when water temperatures rise to unusual levels, which then causes the coral to release colorful microscopic algae that usually provide the coral polyps with food. This process affects plankton and other small organisms, which in turn affects the fish that typically feed on such organisms. The affect of climate change on coral reefs is only one prime example of how climate change can affect marine life. Phytoplankton populations have also been affected by the warming temperatures in the ocean.
The large population centres near coasts has led to silting of reefs, pollution by nutrients that lead to algal growth that smothers the coral, and overfishing that has led to increase in number of predators that eat corals. Warming of the ocean causes corals to sicken and die. Even a rise of one degree in the average water
Ishan Joshi 1 Mercury Contamination in Aquatic Ecosystem Term Paper [Chemical Oceanography-4126] Ishan Joshi Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences Abstract Mercury is the unique and toxic element that resides in small amount in the atmosphere, the hydrosphere and the biosphere. After industrial revolution and increased anthropogenic activities, concentration of elemental mercury and its compounds has increased about 3-4 times in the atmosphere which resulted life-threatening and devastating influence on marine and terrestrial ecosystem. Increment in atmospheric mercury concentration resulted elevated mercury loading in the upper ocean. More than a half of the human population depends on salt water and fresh water fish for their daily diet. Since fish is the main target of mercury contamination, humans are at a lifethreatening risk by toxic effects mercury.