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DEEP

THE EFFECTS OF OCEAN POLLUTIONS

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Published in 2020 by Phaidon Press New York City Phaidon.com The moral rights of Steve Hogan to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by his in accordance with Copyright, Designs and Patent Act 1988 Text Š Steve Hogan Photography Š Michael Kisner All right reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in retrival system or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

ISBN: 978-1-78448-053-4 Printed and bound in San Francisco

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The Effects of Ocean Pollution

Special Thanks to David Stevenson & Sarah Thompson

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PREFACE Over two thirds of Earth’s surface is covered by water; less than a third is taken up by land. As Earth’s population continues to grow, people are putting ever-increasing pressure on the planet’s water resources. In a sense, our oceans, rivers, and other inland waters are being “squeezed” by human activities— not so they take up less room, but so their quality is reduced. Poorer water quality means water pollution.

We know that pollution is a human problem because it is a relatively recent development in the planet’s history: before the 19th century Industrial Revolution, people lived more in harmony with their immediate environment.

As industrialization has spread around the globe, so the problem of pollution has spread with it. When Earth’s population was much smaller, no one believed pollution would ever present a serious problem. It was once popularly believed that the oceans were far too big to pollute. Today, with around 7 billion people on the planet, it has become apparent that there are limits. Pollution is one of the signs that humans have exceeded those limits

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The Effects of Ocean Pollution

How serious is the problem? According to the environmental campaign organization WWF: “Pollution from toxic chemicals threatens life on this planet. Every ocean and every continent, from the tropics to the once-pristine polar regions, is contaminated.”

Land-based sources pollute estuaries and coastal waters with nutrients, sediments, pathogens as well as many thousands of toxic chemicals, including metals, pesticides, industrial products, pharmaceuticals and more. Following the industrial revolution, increasing amounts of materials have been discharged into the environment The ocean plays a key role in cycles of from chemical industries, sewage carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and a treatment plants, and agriculture, variety of other important chemicals. eventually reaching marine ecosystems.

Ocean chemistry has been changing Highly visible events such as the due to human activities, both regionally Exxon Valdez, and the Gulf of Mexico in coastal waters and in the open “gusher” have raised public awareness of ocean. Some of the greatest impacts are on marine pollution in recent decades. carbon, nitrogen, and dissolved There is growing scientific evidence oxygen, which affect biological productivity. demonstrating serious, sometimes The rate of primary production is disastrous, impacts of pollution in the determined primarily by light and nutrients. marine environment.

Decades of pollution of marine waters, along with coastal habitat destruction, overfishing and bottom trawling have had devastating impacts on biodiversity and habitats. The increasing demand for seafood worldwide has depleted fish populations and devastated the economic well-being of coastal communities.

At the same time, climate change is altering the oceans in major ways that we are only beginning to understand.

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CONTENTS

Introduction The Oceans Pacific Ocean Atlantic Ocean Indian Ocean Southern Ocean Arctic Ocean

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The Impact 8

Oil Spills 34 Littering 36 Ocean Mining 40 Land Runoff 44 Toxic Chemicals 46 Sewage 48

The Effects of Ocean Pollution

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The Action Volunteering Better Ecosystem

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Introduction 10

The Effects of Ocean Pollution

Introduction

Each year, billions of pounds of trash and other pollutants enter the ocean. Where does this pollution come from?

Where does it go? Some of the debris ends up on our beaches, washed in with the waves and tides. Some debris sinks, some is eaten by marine animals that mistake it for food, and some accumulates in ocean gyres. Other forms of pollution that impact the health of the ocean come from sources like oil spills or from accumulation of many dispersed sources, such as fertilizer from our yards.

The majority of pollutants that make their way into the ocean come from human activities along the coastlines and far inland. One of the biggest sources of pollution is nonpoint source pollution, which occurs as a result of runoff. Nonpoint source pollution can come from many sources, like septic tanks, vehicles, farms, livestock ranches, and timber harvest areas. Pollution that comes from a single source, like an oil or chemical spill, is known as point source pollution. Point source pollution events often have large impacts, but fortunately, they occur less often. Discharge from faulty or damaged factories or water treatment systems is also considered point source pollution.

Marine debris is a persistent pollution problem that reaches throughout the entire ocean and Great Lakes. Our ocean and waterways are polluted with a wide variety of marine debris, ranging from tiny microplastics, smaller than 5 mm, to derelict fishing gear and abandoned vessels. Worldwide, hundreds of marine species have been negatively impacted by marine debris, which can harm or kill an animal when it is ingested or they become entangled, and can threaten the habitats they depend on. Marine debris can also interfere with navigation safety and potentially pose a threat to human health.

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The Oceans Pacific Ocean Atlantic Ocean Indian Ocean Southern Ocean Arctic Ocean

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Atlantic Ocean

NORTH AMERICA

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Pacific Ocean SOUTH AMERICA

Southern Ocean The Effects of Ocean Pollution

Arctic Ocean

EUROPE

ASIA

Pacific Ocean AFRICA

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AUSTRALIA

Indian Ocean

Southern Ocean DEEP DOWN

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“To get a sense of just how immense the Pacific Ocean is, you could put all of Earth’s landmasses together, and the Pacific would still be larger.”

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The Oceans | Pacific Ocean

THE LARGEST AND DEEPEST OCEAN ON EARTH

Pacific Ocean

A California sea lion hunts for fish on a kelp paddy at Cortes Bank, a seamount off San Diego.

Hard corals carpet a shallow seafloor on Kingman Reef, in the Northern Line Islands, about 1,250 miles south of Hawaii

The name Pacific is a version of pacify or peaceful. It was named by the explorer Ferdinand Magellan in 1520 as he sailed through a calm patch of water on the ocean. Despite its name, the Pacific is a vast body of water teeming with activity Much of the ocean is still waiting to be explored, but human activities like industrial fishing, deep-sea mining, and fossil-fuel burning are already changing it in significant ways. The vast body of water is home to some of the most unique life forms on Earth and contains the deepest reaches known to humankind.

The Pacific Ocean stirs up some of the strongest hurricanes ever seen. For example, in 2018 the strongest storm of the year was Super Typhoon Mangkhut.

It hit the Philippines in late September before dissipating over mainland China.

At its strongest, the storm’s winds topped 165 miles per hour, uprooting trees, destroying homes, and causing deadly mudslides.

A diver waits in still water under the crashing pipeline of Oahu Island, Hawaii.

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The Oceans | Pacific Ocean

Great Pacific Garbage Patch Between Hawaii and California is an area larger than the state of Texas that has been dubbed the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Though the name may conjure up a massive island of plastic jutting out of the sea, 94 percent of the plastics found in the patch are actually microplastics— tiny pieces of plastic smaller than a grain of rice and often impossible to see with the naked eye. Much of the heaviest plastic found in the patch is abandoned fishing gear, often referred to as “ghost nets.” Ghost nets threaten marine life because they can easily ensnare animals swimming by.

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The garbage patch in the Pacific is the largest known on the planet, but several others can be found in other oceans (five main ones are often reported). Debris tends to collect in swirling, circular currents called gyres. Experts say that cleaning up the patch entirely is likely impossible, but some are trying to at least mitigate the problem. One Dutch company called Ocean Cleanup has invested $32 million as of early 2019 in cleaning up the Pacific Garbage Patch. Early ocean trials have so far shown mixed results.

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The Oceans | Pacific Ocean

BETWEEN HAWAII AND CALIFORNIA IS AN AREA LARGER THAN THE STATE OF TEXAS THAT HAS BEEN DUBBED THE GREAT PACIFIC GARBAGE

A sea turtle has been affected by a plastic bag in the area of Great Pacific Garbage Patch

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Ocean cleanup device for catching wastes and plastic

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The Oceans | Atlantic Ocean

THE SECOND-LARGEST OCEAN

Atlantic Ocean For centuries, Atlantic Ocean has been a key avenue of trade and travel. Stretching from the Arctic Circle to Antarctica, the Atlantic Ocean is bordered by the Americas to the west and Europe and Africa to the east.

It's more than 41 million square miles, the second-largest ocean on Earth after the Pacific Ocean.

Scientists and geographers broadly separate the Atlantic in terms of north and south. The North Atlantic and South Atlantic each have distinct ocean currents that influence weather around the world.

Water Currents and Gyres

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The ocean doesn’t sit still like water in a sink. It moves more like a conveyer belt that’s driven by changes in temperature and salinity over large areas. Both quick-moving surface currents and slower-moving deep ocean currents circulate water around the globe. The seawater is constantly trying to find a balance. Warm water is less dense than cold water, so as water cools, it sinks, and warm water replaces it. Water with high salinity—more salt—also moves into waters with lower salinity. Those factors drive the conveyer belt, a process also called thermohaline circulation.

Warm water is heated by the Gulf Stream, a warm air current that originates in the Gulf of Mexico. The warm water then moves north, where it forces cooler water to sink and move south. As the current moves toward Antarctica, upwelling pushes cold water back to the surface, pushing the watery conveyer belt around the world. Scientists estimate that it takes the conveyer belt about 500 years to make one trip.

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“The second-largest ocean on Earth, the Atlantic drives our weather patterns, including hurricanes, and is home to many species from sea turtles to dolphins.�

The Oceans | Atlantic

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“Indian ocean covers approximately one-fifth of the total ocean area of the world. It is the smallest, youngest, and physically most complex of the three major oceans.�

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The Oceans | Indian Ocean

BODY OF SALT WATER

Indian Ocean Indian ocean covers approximately one-fifth of the total ocean area of the world. It is the smallest, geologically youngest, and physically most complex of the world’s three major oceans.

It stretches for more than 6,200 miles between the southern tips of Africa and Australia and, without its marginal seas, has an area of about 28,360,000 square miles.

The Indian Ocean is bounded by Iran, Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh to the north; the Malay Peninsula, the Sunda Islands of Indonesia, and Australia to the east; Antarctica to the south; and Africa and the Arabian Peninsula to the west. In the southwest it joins the Atlantic Ocean south of the southern tip of Africa, and to the east and southeast its waters mingle with those of the Pacific Ocean.

Island resort in the Maldives, north-central Indian Ocean.

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Without Its Marginal Seas The Indian Ocean has the fewest marginal seas of the major oceans. To the north are the inland Red Sea and Persian Gulf. The Arabian Sea is to the northwest, and the Andaman Sea to the northeast. The large gulfs of Aden and Oman are to the northwest, the Bay of Bengal is to the northeast, and the Great Australian Bight is off the southern coast of Australia.

Great Australian Bight Marine Park, southern Australia.

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The Oceans | Southern Ocean

THE SOUTHERN PORTIONS OF THE PACIFIC, ATLANTIC, AND INDIAN OCEANS

Southern Ocean Southern Ocean, also called Antarctic Ocean, the southern portions of the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian oceans and their tributary seas surrounding Antarctica. Unbroken by any other continental landmass, the Southern Ocean’s narrowest constriction is the Drake Passage, 600 miles wide, between South America and the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula.

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The structure of the ocean floor includes a continental shelf usually less than 160 miles wide that attains its maximum width of more than 1,600 miles in the vicinity of the Weddell and Ross seas. There are oceanic basins farther north that are as much as 14,800 feet deep, defined by oceanic rises and often marked by ranges of abyssal hills. There are also narrow oceanic trenches with high relief, such as the South Sandwich Trench on the eastern side of the South Sandwich Islands.

Other relief features include oceanic plateaus that rise from the oceanic basins to depths of less than 6,650 feet below sea level and form rather flat regions, which are often covered by relatively thick sedimentary deposits.

The most extensive such plateau is the Campbell, or New Zealand, Plateau, which rises southeast of New Zealand and extends southward beyond the Campbell Islands.

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The Oceans | Southern Ocean

Complex Flow of Currents The flow of currents in the Southern Ocean is complex. Water cooled by cold air, outgoing radiation, and katabatic winds off of the Antarctic continent sinks and flows northward along the ocean bottom and is replaced at the surface by an equal volume of warmer water flowing south from the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans.

The meeting point of the two is the Antarctic Convergence, where conditions favour the development of phytoplankton, consisting of diatoms and other single-celled plants. The ocean’s most important organism in the higher food chain is the small, shrimplike krill.

Animals on the sea bottom of the near-shore zone include the sessile hydrozoans, corals, sponges, and bryozoans, as well as the foraging, crablike sea spiders and isopods, the annelid worm polychaete, echinoids, starfish, and a variety of crustaceans and mollusks.

Close up look of lantern fish

At the sea bottom there are also eelpouts, sea snails, rat-tailed fishes, and codlike fishes. Rare nonbony types of fish include hagfish and skates.

Many species of deep-sea fish are known south of the Antarctic Convergence, but only three, a barracuda and two lantern fishes, seem to be confined to this zone.

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Hagfish at the sea bottom

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The Oceans | Southern Ocean

Major Surface Currents The cold, clockwise-flowing Antarctic Circumpolar Current (West Wind Drift; 21,000 km long) moves perpetually eastward around the continent and is the world's largest and strongest ocean current, transporting 130 million cubic meters of water per second - 100 times the flow of all the world's rivers; it is also the only current that flows all the way around the planet and connects the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans; the cold Antarctic Coastal Current (East Wind Drift) is the southernmost current in the world, flowing westward and parallel to the Antarctic coastline

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Southern Ocean

ANTARCTICA

Southern Ocean

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“Unbroken by any other continental landmass, the Southern Ocean’s narrowest constriction is the Drake Passage, 600 miles wide, between South America and the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula.”

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The Oceans | Arctic Ocean

SMALLEST OF THE WORLD’S OCEANS

Arctic Ocean

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Smallest of the world’s oceans, centering approximately on the North Pole.

The Arctic Ocean and its marginal seas— the Chukchi, East Siberian, Laptev, Kara, Barents, White, Greenland, and Beaufort and, according to some oceanographers, also the Bering and Norwegian seas—are the least-known basins and bodies of water in the world ocean as a result of their remoteness, hostile weather, and perennial or seasonal ice cover. This is changing, however, because the Arctic may exhibit a strong response to global change and may be capable of initiating dramatic climatic changes through alterations induced in the oceanic thermohaline circulation by its cold, southward-moving currents or through its effects on the global albedo resulting from changes in its total ice cover.

A polar bear and her cubs are stranded on an iceless shoreline in Svalbard.

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The Oceans | Arctic Ocean

Sea Ice Several factors in the Arctic Ocean make its physical, chemical, and biological processes significantly different from those in the adjoining North Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Most notable is the covering ice pack, which reduces the exchange of energy between ocean and atmosphere by about 100 times. In addition, sea ice greatly reduces the penetration of sunlight needed for the photosynthetic processes of marine life and impedes the mixing effect of the winds. A further significant distinguishing feature is the high ratio of freely connected shallow seas to deep basins.

A black-legged kittiwake soars past an Arctic Ocean iceberg in Svalbard, Norway.

The cover of sea ice suppresses wind stress and wind mixing, reflects a large proportion of incoming solar radiation, imposes an upper limit on the surface temperature, and impedes evaporation.

Wind and water stresses keep the ice pack in almost continuous motion, causing the formation of cracks (leads), open ponds (polynya), and pressure ridges. Along these ridges the pack ice may be locally stacked high and project downward 33–80 feet (about 10–25 metres) into the ocean.

Besides its deterrence to the exchange of energy between the ocean and the atmosphere, the formation of sea ice generates vast quantities of cold water that help drive the circulation of the world ocean system.

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The Effects of Ocean Pollution

The Impact Oil Spills Littering Ocean Mining Land Runoff Toxic Chemicals Sewage

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The Impact | Oil Spills

Oceans are the largest water bodies on the planet Earth.

Over the last few decades, excessive human activities have severely affected marine life on the Earth’s oceans.

Ocean pollution, also known as marine pollution, is the spreading of harmful substances such as oil, plastic, industrial and agricultural waste and chemical particles into the ocean.

OIL SPILLS How and where do oil spills happen?

Oil spills that happen in rivers, bays and the ocean most often are caused by accidents involving tankers, barges, pipelines, refineries, drilling rigs and storage facilities, but also occur from recreational boats and in marinas. Most oils float on the oceans’ saltwater or freshwater from rivers and lakes. Oil usually spreads out rapidly across the water’s surface to form a thin oil slick. As the oil continues spreading, the slick becomes thinner and thinner, finally becoming a very thin sheen, which often looks like a rainbow. (In rare cases, very heavy oil can sometimes sink.)

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The scene of the oil spill in the waters around Mauritius after Japanese bulk carrier, MV Wakashio, ran aground.

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The Impact | Oil Spills

“Oil destroys the insulating ability of fur-bearing mammals, such as sea otters, and the water-repelling abilities of a bird’s feathers, exposing them to the harsh elements.”

Depending on the circumstances, oil spills can be very harmful to marine birds, sea turtles and mammals, and also can harm fish and shellfish.

Oil destroys the insulating ability of fur-bearing mammals, such as sea otters, and the water-repelling abilities of a bird’s feathers, exposing them to the harsh elements. Many birds and animals also swallow oil and are poisoned when they try to clean themselves or when eating oiled prey. Fish and shellfish can also digest oil, which could cause changes in reproduction, growth rates or even death.

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Commercially important species such as oysters, shrimp, mahi-mahi, grouper, swordfish and tuna also could suffer population declines or become too contaminated to be safely caught and eaten. Depending on just where and when a spill happens, from a few up to hundreds or thousands of birds, fish, mammals, reptiles, corals and other animals and plants can be killed or injured.

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The Impact | Littering

USA INTERNATIONAL COASTAL CLEANUP RESULTS

168,855

242,534

286,678

345,241

842,834

Top 10 Items Collected from the Ocean

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Beverage Can

Plastic Beverage Bottles

Plastic Bottle Caps

Food Wrappers

Cigarettes Butts

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Foam Packaging

Metal Bottle Caps

Plastic Bags

Glass Bottles

Straws

92,209

93,917

96,815

111,682

144,464

The Impact | Littering

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“Marine litter is not only ugly—it can harm ocean ecosystems, wildlife, and humans.”

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The Impact | Littering

Marine Debris and Pollution Don’t Belong in Our Oceans Marine litter is human-created waste that has been discharged into the coastal or marine environment. Specifically: “Marine debris” is defined to include any anthropogenic, manufactured, or processed solid material (regardless of size) discarded, disposed of, or abandoned in the environment, including all materials discarded into the sea, on the shore, or brought indirectly to the sea by rivers, sewage, storm water, waves, or winds.” We stand with scientists and policy makers who have found that effective marine debris solutions require actions to improve litter prevention, recycling, and other waste management infrastructure, along with strong regional and international partnerships.

Marine litter is not only ugly – it can harm ocean ecosystems, wildlife, and humans. It can injure coral reefs and bottom-dwelling species and entangle or drown ocean wildlife. Some marine animals ingest smaller plastic particles and choke or starve.

Medical waste (such as syringes), sharp objects, and large pieces of litter can pose a direct threat to humans. The economic impact of marine litter is thought to be significant.

Cigarette butts make up over half of our littered objects,

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The Impact | Ocean Mining

Deep-sea Mining Deep-sea mining is the process of retrieving mineral deposits from the deep sea – the area of the ocean below 200 m which covers about 65% of the Earth’s surface. There is growing interest in the mineral deposits of the deep sea. This is largely due to depleting terrestrial deposits for metals such as copper, nickel, aluminum, manganese, zinc, lithium and cobalt, coupled with rising demand for these metals to produce high-tech applications such as smartphones and green technologies such as wind turbines, solar panels and electric storage batteries.

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The Effects of Ocean Pollution

So far, the focus has been on exploring the deep sea–assessing the size and extent of mineral deposits. By May 2018, the International Seabed Authority (ISA)–which regulates activities in areas beyond national jurisdiction – had issued 29 contracts for the exploration of deep-sea mineral deposits. More than 1.5 million km2 of international seabed – roughly the size of Mongolia – have been set aside for mineral exploration in the Pacific and Indian oceans, and along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.

The Impact | Ocean Mining

THE SCRAPING OF THE SEA FLOOR AND POLLUTION FROM MINING PROCESSES CAN WIPE OUT ENTIRE SPECIES–MANY YET TO BE DISCOVERED.

Disturbance of the Seafloor The scraping of the ocean floor by machines can alter or destroy deep-sea habitats, leading to the loss of species and fragmentation or loss of ecosystem structure and function. Many species living in the deep sea are endemic– meaning they do not occur anywhere else on the planet–and physical disturbances in just one mining site can possibly wipe out an entire species.

This is one of the biggest potential impacts from deep-sea mining.

41 Mining deep under sea affects ecosystems like the Beehive at the Snake Pit hydrothermal vent field.

Coal mining near the Hambach Forest. Imagine a machine like this digging up the seabed.

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The Impact | Ocean Mining

EFFECTS OF OCEAN MINING

Marine life may be affected by noise.

Lack of data or spatial and temporal species distribution mean the full impact of mining on species is unknown.

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Sediment plumes: potential for release of toxic elements.

Sediment becomes impacted by heavy machinery

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The Impact | Ocean Mining

Disturbance by noise, light and sediment.

The community structure can experience potentially irreversible changes by complete removal of substrate and of sessile and slow-moving fauna

The temperature of seawater increases when return water is pumped back to the sea.

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“Some water pollution actually starts as air pollution, which settles into waterways and oceans. Dirt can be a pollutant. Top soil or silt from fields or construction sites can run off into waterways, harming fish and wildlife.�

The Effects of Ocean Pollution

The Impact | Land Runoff

Land Runoff Eighty percent of pollution to the marine environment comes from the land. One of the biggest sources is called nonpoint source pollution, which occurs as a result of runoff.

Nonpoint source pollution includes many small sources, like septic tanks, cars, trucks, and boats, plus larger sources, such as farms, ranches, and forest areas.

Millions of motor vehicle engines drop small amounts of oil each day onto roads and parking lots. Much of this, too, makes its way to the sea. Some water pollution actually starts as air pollution, which settles into waterways and oceans. Dirt can be a pollutant. Top soil or silt from fields or construction sites can run off into waterways, harming fish and wildlife habitats.

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When large tracts of land are plowed, the exposed soil can erode during rainstorms. Much of this runoff flows to the sea, carrying with it agricultural fertilizers and pesticides

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The Impact | Toxic Chemicals

Toxic Chemicals Chemical pollution is the introduction of harmful contaminants. Common man-made pollutants that reach the ocean include pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers, detergents, oil, industrial chemicals, and sewage. Many ocean pollutants are released into the environment far upstream from coastlines. Nutrientpacked fertilizers applied to farmland, for example, often end up in local streams and are eventually deposited into estuaries and bays. These excess nutrients trigger massive blooms of algae that rob the water of oxygen, leaving dead zones where few marine organisms can live. Some chemical pollutants climb high into the food webs— like DDT, the insecticide that placed the bald eagle on the United States Fish and Wildlife’s endangered species list.

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Pollutants are dumped into the ocean. This waste affects the daily life of fish and other marine creatures.

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The Impact | Toxic Chemicals

Scientists are starting to better understand how specific pollutants, leached into the ocean from other materials, affect marine wildlife. PFAS, a chemical incorporated into many household products, accumulates in human and marine mammal blood. Even pharmaceuticals ingested by humans, but not fully processed by our bodies, end up in aquatic food webs.

Chemicals From Home People use many different sorts of cleaning, washing and polishing products which all contain various chemicals which often end up down the drain when washed out of dish clothes or used in the bath or kitchen sink. These chemicals may be harmful to wildlife and marine environments as they can contain harmful substances such as sodium hypochlorite, petroleum distillates, phenol and cresol, and ammonia.

Buying cleaning products that contain natural soluble/biodegradable ingredients helps to prevent these nasty fluids from ending up in natural water sources.

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The Impact | Sewage

Sewage and Agricultural Waste Sewage originates primarily from domestic, commercial, and industrial sources. In many developed countries, these wastes typically are delivered either to on-site septic systems or to centralized sewage treatment facilities. In both methods, sewage is treated before being discharged, either underground (in the case of septic tanks) or to receiving surface water bodies (in the case of sewage treatment plants), typically a stream, river, or coastal outlet.

Wastewater contains high concentrations of inorganic nutrients, such as ammonium, nitrite, nitrate and phosphate.

Typically, coral reefs survive best in nutrient poor areas, so any substantial input of nutrients shifts the composition of the water and cause nutrient loading. When the water contains too many nutrients, algae grow, which ruins the coral’s cover, which directly hurting coral. Studies have shown that there is a positive correlation between the nitrogen levels in the water and amount of coral bleaching. Further experiments have shown that when nitrogen levels return to normal, these sites experience rapid recovery, implying there is causation between nitrogen levels and coral bleaching.

Finally, corals can take up hormones, specifically estrogen, present in sewage waste. When corals metabolism estrogen there are negative affects on reproduction, growth rates and morphological features.

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Sewage pipe draining in ocean in LA

The Effects of Ocean Pollution

“When the water contains too many nutrients, algae grow, which ruins the coral’s cover, which directly hurting coral.”

The Impact | Sewage

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The Action

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Volunteering Better Ecosystem

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The Action | Beach Cleanups

Beach Cleanups A beach clean up is essentially a volunteer activity among concerned citizens that takes place regularly along coastlines around the world. People pitch in to collect beach trash to make the beach a nicer and safer place for everyone.

Cleaning the beach also improves the coastal and ocean ecosystem by making sure that none of the trash kills marine life or is toxic enough to disrupt the marine life cycle.

A beach clean up is also an opportunity to gather fresh data about the state of our coasts and the types of trash that pollutes them. By identifying the most harmful debris items, environmental groups can find ways to stop them from entering the ocean or being littered again in beaches.

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Beach cleanups also make kids fall in love with the ocean and become ocean warriors forever!

The Effects of Ocean Pollution

The Action | Beach Cleanups

How Do Beach Cleanups Help?

Think of the beach as a bridge between the land and marine environment. It’s a critical biodiversity area. Cleaning our beaches is a step towards cleaning our oceans.

There are also economic benefits to cleaning our beaches. Coastal and marine waters support over 28 million jobs.

Here in America, our beaches are top tourist destinations generating 85 percent of all US tourism venues. When polluted beaches happen, they do not only result to a high increase of illnesses among the local population, but they also hurt the local economy. In fact, economists have estimated that a typical swimming day is worth $35 per beach visitor so the economic loss is pretty much significant when the beach is closed.

Beach clean-ups are also a learning opportunity for citizens. There’s a major difference between seeing photos of plastic pollution online and witnessing it on an actual beach. It makes one think about the impact of the non-biodegradable stuff that we are using and how it’s affecting the environment.

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“People pitch in to collect beach trash to make the beach a nicer and safer place for everyone.�

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The Effects of Ocean Pollution

The Action | Beach Cleanups

The Role of Beaches in Ecosystem And it’s not just us that benefit from hanging around beaches. A lot of marine animals also depend on the beach ecosystem. Most can’t be seen by the naked eye because they are millimeters small or are buried in the sand but they provide an important role in seawater filtration and nutrient recycling.

Some depend on the beach environment as a nursery area for fish fry or nesting sites and rookeries for turtles and birds. Higher up on the marine food chain, the beaches are a vital feeding ground for birds and terrestrial wildlife.

Beaches can also play a role in mitigating the effects of climate change. By acting as a buffer, it can protect the coastline from the damaging effects of high winds and waves of powerful storms. All of these benefits, of course, depend on our beaches being safe, clean and healthy.

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Beach cleanups also make kids fall in love with the ocean and become ocean warriors forever!

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INDEX

A

H

Action 46,47 Antarctic 24,25 Atlantic 16,17 Arctic 16,17,30,31

Home 46,47 Harm 40,41 Human 40, 41

B Beach 15, 35, 50, 57 Bottles 36, 37

Impact 34,35 Indian Ocean 24,25 Industrial Fishing 19

C

J

Continent 16, 17 Currents 16, 17

Jutting 20,21

D 58

I

Deep 14, 15, 16, 17, 20 Debris 39, 40, 41

E Earth 16, 17, 18 Ecosystem 35,43,57

F Feathers 36,37 Fragmentation 42,43

G Garbage 17, 18 Gyres 22

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K Kara 30 Kill 13

L Littering 40,41 Land Runoff 44,45

M Marine 14, 15 Metal 37

N Nesting 57 Nursery 52,55,57

O

V

Ocean Oil 30, 31, 32 Ocean Mining 42,43

Volunteer 50 Vulnerable 25

P Pacific Ocean 18,19 Plastic 13, 14, 36, 37 Pollutant 12, 13 Philippines 19

Q

W Wipe Out 43 Wastewater 50

Z Zone 34

Quality 34

R Refineries 36 Rock 45 Reproduction 46,47

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S Sewage 48,49 Southern Ocean 26,27

T Toxic Chemicals 46,47 Trash 54,55,56,57

U Universal 23 Uprooting 19

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The Effects of Ocean Pollution 19

COLOPHON Trade Gothic Next Chronicle Text Chronicle Display MOAB Lasal Matte Paper Designed by Otto Homruen This is a student project only. No parts of this book or any other part of this project was produced for commercial use.

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The Effects of Ocean Pollution

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The Effects of Ocean Pollution 19

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The Effects of Ocean Pollution

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The Effects of Ocean Pollution 19

HOW DO WE POLLUTE?

DEEP DOWN: THE EFFECTS OF OCEAN POLLUTION

Each year, billions of pounds of trash and other pollutants enter the ocean. Where does this pollution come from?

Where does it go? Some of the debris ends up on our beaches, washed in with the waves and tides. Some debris sinks, some is eaten by marine animals that mistake it for food, and some accumulates in ocean gyres. Other forms of pollution that impact the health of the ocean come from sources like oil spills or from accumulation of many dispersed sources, such as fertilizer from our yards.

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STEVE HOGAN

The Effects of Ocean Pollution