The 'Polluted' Ocean
how humans affect the ocean
Oil Spills
Oil spills-about 20,000 oil spills happen yearly, but not all of them are catastrophic. Some oil spills can happen naturally. For example Coal Oil Point along the California coast an estimate of 2,000 to 3,000 gallons of crude oil is released .
Prevention
We can clean up oil spills by helping companies like LAMOR which cleans oil spills using skimmers.
Littering
Littering-1.9 billion tons of litter ends up in the ocean each year,and $1,5 billion is spent yearly to clean up the litter
Prevention
Recycling is one of the biggest ways to prevent trash from getting into the ocean. You can also donate to companies that clean up litttering
Eutrophication
Eutrophication is the formation of an algae bloom and it decomposing wasting all of the dissolved oxygen in the area. We can cause rapid growth of algae blooms by putting too much fertilizer in our plants which eventually ends up in the ocean
Preventionn
To prevent eutrophication limit how much nutrients you put on your plants, put algae filtration in rivers, and use ultrasonic irradiation. Also you can make an artificial reef to bring back organisms to an area
Overfishing
By overfishing we are losing species as well as entire ecosystems.As a result the overall ecological unity of our oceans are under stress and at risk of collapse.WE are losing a valuable food source that many depend on for social,economical, or dietary reasons
Prevention
To prevent overfishing you can start fishing in specific seasons so that the fish have time to reproduce while your catching other fish.
Introduced species
Introduced species can create more competition for food in an environment.They can bring in new diseases that nothing in the ecosystem are not adapted to,and an potentially disbalance and destroy an entire ecosystem
Prevention
Create mechanisms to prevent introduction in the first place. Create monitoring systems to detect infestation. Move rapidly to eradicate newly detected invaders.