Ocean Pollution NOW

So before I begin to talk about the possible future effects that ocean pollution could have on well, life as we know, I should probably start by looking at the effects that we’re already seeing from ocean pollution.

So we all know that over the last few decades humans have managed to dumps a TON of trash into the Earth’s oceans. In some of the worst places the amount of plastic exceeds the amount of plankton by 6 times!! We obviously know this is bad for all marine life, but what people may not realize is that this is already really bad for us as humans as well. How so? You may ask. Well, plastic takes literally thousands of years to decay, and as a result of this fish and wildlife are being intoxicated by it. How does this effect humans you may still be wondering. Well, if fish are intoxicated by plastics and we eat fish, these toxins are entering the food chain and effecting human health. I’ll talk about that more in a bit, but first some more background about some of the most polluted areas.

In the North Pacific Ocean there is an area bigger than the state of Texas known as The Great Pacific Garbage Patch (or the Pacific Trash Vortex or gyre). There are also two other major trash vortexes in the Indian and Atlantic Oceans as well. Basically these areas have a much much higher concentration of trash than average patches of the ocean, about 580,000 pieces of plastic per square kilometer to be exact.

So back to why the toxins in plastic are so bad for humans. Well, before the plastic even enters the ocean it acts as a sponge and soaks up toxins from the environment, that’s like a double whammy of toxins. The toxins in the plastic alone come from lead, cadmium, and mercury, and a toxic carcinogen DEHP (Diethylhexyl phthalate), a lot of these have been found in many fish from oceans. These toxins can be directly related to birth defects, immune system problems, and childhood development issues. YIKES! Those definitely aren’t things that anybody wants to be putting in their body, but because of all to pollution we do. If the health of humans isn’t enough to make people think twice about where their garbage ends up I don’t know what would be.

If humans are being effect so much on a secondhand level imagine how the animals that have to live in such a toxic environment are affected. In the western hemisphere the beluga whale has gotten to honor (or dishonor) of being the “most toxic mammal”. This is due to chemical agricultural runoff, which causes beluga carcasses to become saturated with toxic waste so much so that carcasses must be handled in the same manor has normal toxic waste. The SLE beluga suffers from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which are involved with the etiology of cancer. Among the several kinds of cancer observed in belugas is the cancer of the proximal intestine. This is a very rare type of cancer in all species, even humans! How ever this type of cancer is seen in species exposed to 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic (also refered to as 2,4-D), an herbicide that’s used to control broadleaf weeds. The rate of cancer among these belugas is higher than any other population of wild terrestrial aquatic animals. Another very toxic chemical found in the oceans that’s really effecting orcas in particular are PCBs. PCBs drop the average life expectancy of orcas to almost half. Sometimes orca calves don’t even survive because the mother passes so many of the contaminants to the calf. A 2007 study found that the effects of PCB contamination in the Pacific Northwest could last at least until 2030 effecting 230 populations of animals. The southern population of 85 may see effects even longer, until about 2063. Some of the effects PCBs can have on whales are making them more vulnerable to infectious diseases, and effecting normal growth and development. All of this just goes to show that the effects of the chemicals we use has a major effect on the marine wildlife and we should really think twice about the way and where we use such harmful chemicals.

These are just some of the effects that are happening currently, but imagine some of the effects that could happen if we continue at the rate we are going now. There could be major consequences to not only marine life, but on human life as well.

http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/health/case_studies/plastics.html

http://bluevoice.org/news_issueseffects.php