Morrison 1

Christopher Morrison
DeBock
English 4
October 7th 2014
Ocean Pollution
The ocean is such a vast open area taking up 71 percent of the world, being that it is so
huge it has got pollution from all around (Ocean). Then also being so huge think of all the
different species of animals that are in the ocean, between 700,000 and one million (Ocean).
Within the huge number of animals and the amount of pollution certain species are starting to die
out. Ocean pollution is causing negative effects on the marine life and environment by killing off
different species.
First off, there is an abundance of different types of pollution out there. There is
catastrophic oil spill from oil drilling to your everyday human trash. From large to small
amounts, the amount of trash build up has become unbelievable. As Sielen says in his article,
Debris drifts out to sea, where it forms epic gyres of floating waste, such as the infamous Great
Pacific Garbage Patch, which spans hundreds of miles across the North Pacific Ocean. This
Great Pacific Garbage Patch is also known as Garbage Island and is as it sounds, and island of
trash floating around breaking down into microscopic plastic particles killing organisms. Another
type of pollution effecting the ocean is runoff, in fact chemical runoff is the most dangerous
according to Sielen. Sewage is a big contaminate because it contains organic matter and it will
act as a fertilizer, then the organic matter causes algae and other plants to grow. If too many

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plants bloom, it will use the oxygen in the water and start to kill fishes because there is no
oxygen and it suffocates everything (Allen).
As a result, pollution will affect us, in just about all negative. In fact, is there any good
things that come out of pollution? Well sometimes an artist will gather some pollution that they
had found and create it in a sculpture. [Which is cool and all but that does not really help much.]
Chemical runoff as stated above is one of the most dangerous types of pollution in the ocean and
this is because most of it is untested chemicals that we have no idea what they are or what they
could possibly do to organisms (International Scientist Dr. Peter Ross to lead new Ocean
Pollution Science Program at Vancouver Aquarium."). Another threat we have is overfishing,
like Sielen says, Teach a man to fish, and then what. What he is saying that once someone is
taught how to fish they will keep fishing. The human appetite has wiped out certain spices of
fish. This may not seem like a type of pollution but it is effecting the ecosystem. Heavy metal
runoff is part of the chemical runoff but still a severe issue. As it is said by Day, Domestic and
industrial wastewater, and runoff from polluted land, may contain trace amounts of heavy metals
such as mercury, lead, and cadmium that are poisonous to many forms of life. (Day 204) Trevor
Day is saying that the industrial plants are polluting the land and from the land it soaks into the
water and the metals like lead are very poisonous to the organisms in the oceans.
Ocean pollution is causing negative effects on the marine life and environment by
killing off different species. Through research ocean pollution has become a serious issue in the
past years. It effects out ecosystem by killing the organisms and destroying the water. From the
industrial runoff to the everyday littering at the beach in the end it will all add up and still cause
bad thing to happen.

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Works Cited
Allen, Wendy. Personal Interview. October 5, 2014
"International Scientist Dr. Peter Ross to lead new Ocean Pollution Science Program at
Vancouver Aquarium." Canada Newswire 18 Feb. 2014: Points of View Reference
Center. Web. 10 Oct. 2014.
Day, Trevor. "Chapter 9." Oceans. New York, NY: Facts On File, 1999. 199-215. Print.
"Ocean." NOAA. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Nov. 2014.
Sielen, Alan B. "The Devolution Of The Seas." Foreign Affairs 92.6 (2013): 124. Points of View
Reference Center. Web. 9 Oct. 2014.