How does Ocean pollution affects the environment

Ocean pollution has been going on for a very long time but efforts are being made to fix this mess. Given that this problem has been a plague to modern environmentalist and the damage has been rather extensive, ever wondered how has the ecosystem been affected over the years?


Death of aquatic life

Up till the year 2010 there is an estimated 15,304 species of fish and 194,696 to 214,696 species of animals and plants. These species are at risk of extinction due to ocean pollution and human activity. whether it's oil spills or synthetic waste such as plastic floating around in the water, these creatures are slowly dying out due to the negligence of humans. Leather back Turtles are an example of animals that are at risk of extinction due to ocean waste, Plastic bags floating in the sea is mistaken by these animals as jellyfish as their diet because these species of turtles only eats soft and gelatinous prey(SEE Turtles, 2016).

Disruption of food-chain

This is a direct result of the death of aquatic life. Pollutants such as lead and cadmium are consumed by zooplankton which are in turn consumed by fish and shell fish and the food chain continues with the pollutant transferring from one organism to another because heavy metals cannot be metabolized so these pollutants will in turn bind with cellular components in the body and retard their functions. These will in turn cause the deterioration of health in both the aquatic animals and humans who consume them. Also the pollutants will slowly kill off zooplankton which are essential to the food chain as zooplankton makes up for a majority of the diet of marine animals and if zooplankton die out fishes will slowly die off which will cause the disruption(Hill, 2016).

Destruction of an ecosystem

As the natural food chain gets affected due to the death of members of the food-chain, the larger food web will get affected because these organism are interlinked with one another and their interaction with one another keeps the balance of their population as these organisms have a prey and predator relationship (Eschooltoday.com, 2016). For example if zooplanktons were to die out, the smaller fishes that preys on zooplanktons will reduce in number and the fishes the preys on smaller fishes will dwindle in number and so on and so forth. Overtime this disparity will start to showing in the form of species of fishes slowly migrating elsewhere or going extinct entirely, larger predatory fishes or animals population will be reduced, and humans who rely on these organisms for survival will have their livelihoods affected. 

written by: Benjamin


References

1. Hill, H. (2016). A Brief Guide about The food chain. [online] Earthuntouched.com. Available at: http://earthuntouched.com/food-chain-disruption-animal-population/ [Accessed 12 Nov. 2016].
2. Eschooltoday.com. (2016). What are the effects of water pollution. [online] Available at: http://eschooltoday.com/pollution/water-pollution/effects-of-water-pollution.html [Accessed 12 Nov. 2016].
3. SEE Turtles. (2016). Ocean Pollution. [online] Available at: http://www.seeturtles.org/ocean-pollution [Accessed 12 Nov. 2016].

Cause And Repercussions Of Ocean Pollution

Ocean pollution or marine pollution is the dissemination of hazardous and potentially damaging substances such as oil, plastic, industrial and agricultural waste and chemical particles into the ocean(Conserve-Energy-Future, 2014). The few major culprits to this major issue would include:

1.    Large Scale Oil Spills and ocean mining: Ship pollution and ocean mining especially that done by oil rigs is a very publicized and known source of ocean pollution, the most common of which being oil spills. Crude oil lasts for years in the sea and is extremely toxic to marine life, often suffocating marine animals to death once it entraps them. Crude oil is also extremely difficult to clean up. Ocean mining increases the chance of leaking, corrosion and oil spills that only drastically further hinder the ecosystem of the region.

2.    Littering: This occurs when objects that are far inland are blown by the wind or just dumped into the sea by humans. These objects natural waste such as dust and sand from the wind, to man-made objects such as debris and trash. Most debris, especially plastic debris, cannot decompose and remains suspended in the oceans current for years. Animals can become snagged on the plastic or mistake it for food, slowly killing them over a long period of time.

Impact of pollution

When ocean pollution comes to mind the main victim of this is mostly the ocean ecosystem ad that the first thing that comes to mind but the effects of ocean pollution runs much deeper than that. To put it into perspective, an estimated 3 out of 7 billion people rely on seafood as their primary source of protein(Conservation International, 2016) and if the ocean is polluted, these 3 billion people will either starve or be faced with health ailments. Another fact is 44% of the world’s population live within 150 km from the sea(Coastal Challenges . com, 2010). So a polluted ocean will affect the lives of approximately 3 billion and 80 million people in the world. From an economic viewpoint,  the ocean is worth an estimated US$ 24 trillion in monetary terms(Milman, 2015) . So when an ocean is polluted and it’s not taken care of, it’s not only the fishermen who will feel the pinch, the whole world will feel the heat when things spiral out of hand.
references

1. Conserve-Energy-Future. (2014). Causes and Effects of Ocean Pollution - Conserve Energy Future. [online] Available at: http://www.conserve-energy-future.com/causes-and-effects-of-ocean-pollution.php [Accessed 28 Sep. 2016].
2. Conservation International. (2016). Home. [online] Available at: http://www.conservation.org/ [Accessed 28 Sep. 2016].
3. Milman, O. (2015). Oceans are world's seventh largest economy worth $24tn, says WWF report. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/apr/23/oceans-are-worlds-seventh-largest-economy-worth-24tn-says-wwf-report [Accessed 28 Sep. 2016].
4. Coastal Challenges . com. (2010). UN Atlas: 44 percent of us live in coastal areas. [online] Available at: https://coastalchallenges.com/2010/01/31/un-atlas-60-of-us-live-in-the-coastal-areas/ [Accessed 28 Sep. 2016].

Written by: Benjamin Huang Hong Liang

Pollutants in seafood and how it impacts our health

Our planet’s ocean is now polluted due to a few factors, and it is becoming serious over the years. Most of the pollution is actually from power plant emissions, residues from industries as well as plastics. The rising pollution in ocean has concerned the fish consumption. (Barclay, 2013) When the plastics are being eaten by the fish, it will affect the food chain and lead to critical consequences in regards to health of humans and wildlife. (Reisewitz, 2016)

Info graphic showing plastic pollution in ocean: 

                               Source: Pinterest
Why is this important? Those fish that consume plastic will develop cell death. A fish that experienced staying in plastic pollutant was found to have tumor on 25% of its liver when being dissected.(Renter,2013) In the view of natural environment. fish consume plastic, then mammals, other marine animals and humans consume fish. Therefore, the risk of inhibiting the defense system in our bodies is higher when too much polluted fish is being consumed. 

Table 2: Disease Burden of Selective Common and Marine-Related Diseases

DISEASE	DALYs/Year (Millions)	Economic Impact (US$ Billions)
Malaria	31.0	124.0
Diabetes	11.0	44.0
Trachea, Brachia and Lung Cancer	8.8	35.0
Stomach Cancer	7.7	31.0
Intestinal Nematodes	5.0	20.0
Upper respiratory tract infections	1.3	5.2
Trachoma	1.0	4.0
Dengue Fever	0.75	3.0
Japanese Encephalitis	0.74	3.0
Diphtheria	0.36	1.4
DISEASE RELATED TO CONTAMINATION
Related to Bathing and Swimming	0.4	1.6
Seafood Consumption (Hepatitis)	1.8	7.2
Seafood Consumption (Algal toxins)	1.0	4.0
Sub Total	3.2	12.8

Source: (GESAMP, 2001)

Another common factor that will suffocate the fish in ocean is caused by the oil spills. The oil spills have caused the marine life to barely survive in ocean, which increase the possibility of experiencing disruption in marine ecosystems. (Olson, 2016) When the oil is released and does not dissolve properly, eventually it will endanger the marine animals and fish. Some of the sea birds also get caught dying because the spilled oil is blocking them from flying. (K.R.Jeyakumar, 2013)

Toxic pollution has been a major contributor to impact our health as well as marine ecosystems. We should all contribute to the improvement of marine life, not limited to non-government organizations or government, because each of us is responsible to our own health and the marine ecosystems.

References:

Barclay, E., 2013. How plastic in the ocean is contaminating your seafood. Eating and Health.

GESAMP, 2001. Protecting the ocean from land based activities. Gesamp Report and Studies, Volume 71, p. 168.

K.R.Jeyakumar, 2013. Impact of marine pollution on human health and the enviornment. Shanlax International Journal of Economics, 1(2), p. 6.

Olson, S., 2016. Fish out of water: Eating polluted seafood may damage humans' natural defense system. Medical Daily.

Reisewitz, A., 2016. Pollutants in fish inhibit human's natural defense system. Science Daily, p. 13.

Renter, E., 2013. Fish eat plastic from pulluted oceans, travels up food chain & harms humans. [Online]
Available at: http://naturalsociety.com/fish-eat-plastic-polluted-oceans-travels-food-chain/

 
Written by: Leow Hooi Shan