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Chemicals, waste, plastic, and other pollutants are choking our rivers, lakes, and oceans. In reality, human activities lead to the pollution and destruction of marine habitats.  This causes a huge decrease in biodiversity as most marine species die due to the destruction of its original habitats.

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Water pollution occurs when harmful substances - often chemicals or microorganisms, contaminate a stream, river, lake, ocean, aquifer, or other body of water, degrading water quality and rendering it toxic to humans or the environment.

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Water Pollution - application to Biology

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Water Pollution - application to Biology

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Water is a “universal solvent," hence able to dissolve more substances than any other liquid on earth. This is why water is so easily polluted. Toxic substances from farms, towns, and factories readily dissolve into and mix with it, causing water pollution.

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stockphoto-graf/shutterstock

Marine pollution is a growing problem in today's world. Our ocean is being flooded with two main types of pollution: chemicals and trash.

Chemical contamination, or nutrient pollution, is concerning for health, environmental, and economic reasons. This type of pollution occurs when human activities, notably the use of fertilizer on farms, lead to the runoff of chemicals into waterways that ultimately flow into the ocean. The increased concentration of chemicals, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, in the coastal ocean promotes the growth of algal blooms, which can be toxic to wildlife and harmful to humans. The negative effects on health and the environment caused by algal blooms hurt local fishing and tourism industries.

Marine trash encompasses all manufactured products-most of them plastic-that end up in the ocean. Littering, storm winds, and poor waste management all contribute to the accumulation of this debris, 80 percent of which comes from sources on land. Common types of marine debris include various plastic items like shopping bags and beverage bottles, along with cigarette butts, bottle caps, food wrappers, and fishing gear. Plastic waste is particularly problematic as a pollutant because it is so long-lasting. Plastic items can take hundreds of years to decompose.

This trash poses dangers to both humans and animals. Fish become tangled and injured in the debris, and some animals mistake items like plastic bags for food and eat them. Small organisms feed on tiny bits of broken-down plastic, called microplastic, and absorb the chemicals from the plastic into their tissues. Microplastics are less than five millimeters (0.2 inches) in diameter and have been detected in a range of marine species, including plankton and whales. When small organisms that consume microplastics are eaten by larger animals, the toxic chemicals then become part of their tissues. In this way, the microplastic pollution migrates up the food chain, eventually becoming part of the food that humans eat.

Solutions for marine pollution include prevention and cleanup. Disposable and single-use plastic is abundantly used in today's society, from shopping bags to shipping packaging to plastic bottles. Changing society's approach to plastic use will be a long and economically challenging process. Cleanup, in contrast, may be impossible for some items. Many types of debris (including some plastics) do not float, so they are lost deep in the ocean. Plastics that do float tend to collect in large "patches" in ocean gyres. The Pacific Garbage Patch is one example of such a collection, with plastics and microplastics floating on and below the surface of swirling ocean currents between California and Hawaii in an area of about 1.6 million square kilometers (617,763 square miles), although its size is not fixed. These patches are less like islands of trash and, as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says, more like flecks of microplastic pepper swirling around an ocean soup. Even some promising solutions are inadequate for combating marine pollution. So-called "biodegradable" plastics often break down only at temperatures higher than will ever be reached in the ocean.

Nonetheless, many countries are taking action. According to a 2018 report from the United Nations, more than sixty countries have enacted regulations to limit or ban the use of disposable plastic items.

National Geographic Society

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Marine pollution is a combination of chemicals and trash, most of which comes from land sources and is washed or blown into the ocean. This pollution results in damage to the environment, to the health of all organisms, and to economic structures worldwide.

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Ocean Pollution: Causes, Effects and Prevention

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Ocean Pollution: Causes, Effects and Prevention

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Ocean Pollution: Causes, Effects, Solutions | TDS

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The impacts of ocean pollution are far-reaching. Take a look at the causes of ocean pollution, its effects, and the steps needed to combat it.

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So what causes ocean pollution? All the data point to one thing: humans are responsible for the majority of the pollution that enters our oceans from land. One of the few of the major contributors of marine pollution is oil spills. Ships have a key role in marine pollution, especially when crude oil spills.

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After being in the ocean for years, crude oil is difficult to extract, leaving permanent damage and contamination in the waters. Intentional discharge is also a main cause. Toxic waste, including mercury, is released into the ocean by manufacturing industries in several parts of the world.

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While purposely dumped into the water, sewage, like plastic items, contributes to ocean pollution. According to the Ocean Conservancy, eight million metric tons of plastic goes into our oceans every year. Atmospheric pollution, or pollutants carried by the wind to the ocean, is a big concern.

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https://youtu.be/45VEIDgDv9s

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Marine pollution is becoming a major problem in the world today, as it kills marine creatures and destroys oceans, rivers, and lakes. Chemicals and trash are the two most harmful substances to the environment.

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Plastic bags and styrofoam containers, for example, dissolve in water and do not decompose. Mining in the ocean's deepest depths pollutes and destroys the environment. Drilling for cobalt, zinc, silver, gold, and copper results in dangerous sulphide deposits deep under the ocean.

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chemical contamination, also known as nutrient pollution is a concern. This type of water pollution happens when human activities, particularly the use of fertilizer on farms, result in chemical runoff into waterways that eventually drain into the ocean. Increased levels of chemicals in the coastal ocean, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, encourage the growth of algal blooms, which is a toxic and harmful material to wildlife and dangerous to humans.

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The second type of water pollution, which is all manufactured items that flow up in the water, they are considered marine trash. This waste builds up over time, with sources coming from land and is a result of littering, storm winds, and poor waste management.

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Common types of marine pollution include plastic items such as shopping bags and beverage bottles, as well as bottle caps, food wrappers, and fishing gear. Because of its longevity as a pollutant, plastic waste is particularly problematic, as the decomposition of plastic products can take hundreds of years.