Due to sea level rising coral reefs are getting destroyed, as they cannot survive in water above 25m. Also the increase of sea levels changes the nutrient flow, which will further damage the food chains. Furthermore coral bleaching is another side affect of global warming which affects the coral reef. Coral bleaching is permanent damage and is effected globally. It gets especially worse during an El Nino year.
Scientists were studying this correlation and discovered some of the reasons for this higher mortality rate. Some otters are caught and killed in fishermen’s nets, some drown in lobster pots, and predators such as sharks kill some. A final explanation for their low population in California is infectious diseases, which mostly kills
B. There are patches in the ocean that are thick, like plastic soup, that have actually been given names. The largest of these has been dubbed The Great Pacific Garbage Patch and it is about the size of Texas. We throw away about 2.5million plastic bottles an hour. C. if not stopped over time the earth with slowly decay and changes in the environment will take place such as acid rain or water that’s become to toxic to drink plus animals will die from the trap like waste.
Algae Blooms are excessive amounts of algae that create a green, red, yellow, brown, or white film over the waters (Anderson). These colorful algae blooms are usually called “red tides” and are associated with toxic or harmful effects (Anderson). Microalgae that has chemical properties harmful to humans or other life is called Harmful Algae Blooms, or HAB’s. Over the years, there has been an increasing amount of HAB’s worldwide, in regions where they previously weren’t. (Anderson) When penguins venture out to find food for them and their family, they become covered in algae, which they later ingest when they clean their feathers.
These runoffs have contributed to the beach closures, and the unsustainable condition of biological life in the lake. Human health is at great risk due to the untreated waste that is dumped in Lake Huron each year. The untreated sewage contains many viruses, two being Giardia (an intestinal parasite), cryptosporidium, which causes intestinal illnesses and even death. E. coli a more familiar virus has elevated its concentrations in Lake Huron, found in either animal or human feces, which causes diarrhea, nausea, and stomach cramps. ("Testing the waters,"
The pots were about 3 feet 6 inches and contained two to three dozen good size crayfish weighing about two several pounds. The men said it was about one hundred and fifteen to three hundred feet long. Another eyewitness saw a great white shark the size of a tractor trailer had attacked a person. Many sharks have been clocked out as fast as 1.5 miles and the mega shark could probably swim in a longer distance since this is a bigger shark. Two percent of the ocean has been overlooked by people ant it leaves ninety-eight percent of the ocean for the megladon can swim.
These emissions can become acid rain and if it can damage a tree, it can and does damage coral. According to the Coral Reef Alliance; the world’s oceans have had “approximately 525 billion tons of carbon dioxide” dumped by human activity within their waters. [ (Coral Reef Alliance, 2012) ]. The site also goes on to state that the destruction of Mangroves,(which have been harvested for lumber) and the loss filtering saltwater swamps due to farming have caused quite a bit of stress on coral reefs. Then there are the odd ways we humans go about “enjoying the ocean”.
This kind of brutal treatment of sharks is being tolerated all over the world and with 90% of the large shark population already wiped out, sharks are being depleted faster then they can reproduce. This puts a severe threat on marine ecosystems worldwide. Sharks play a vital role in the ecosystem, they have shaped marine life for 400 million years and are essential to the health of the planet, and ultimately to the survival of mankind. Sharks are known as apex predators, With fewer sharks around the species they prey on, such as cow nose rays have increased in numbers and in turn masses of cow nose rays are wiping out the bay scallops. This then has a large impact on the economy of local communities who rely on these scallops for a steady income.
Dr Carl Meyer from Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology stated that mass levels of shark culling “runs the risk of ecosystem-level cascade effects where a general lack of sharks results in boom or bust in populations of species further down the food chain”. Furthermore when nets are used to trap sharks, often animals such as dolphins, turtles, whales and dugongs become trapped in them. Turtles are one of the most endangered species as a whole and are just innocent bystanders in this war between humans and sharks. We need to be careful of not affecting other animals in this quest to reduce shark numbers in the name of nothing. Sharks can already be caught legally by commercial and recreational fishers so any cull would be largely
“Apparently the mass of the plastic particles is six times more than the mass of the natural plankton in the area.” This large expanse of ocean has become unhealthy for the animals that feed around the Gyre. “The plastic is found at depths of up to 30 meters. It is literally creating a landmass.” Because not all the plastic’s as it breaks down, and releases large amounts of toxic substances into the water of the Pacific Ocean. Not to mention that the Sea birds and other marine animals mistake these sand like plastics as food, and aren’t able to digest the plastics resulting in a large number of deaths of these animals. We all can contribute in helping the slow the growth of “trash Island” so some call it.