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Cassie Wheeler

Professor Barnes

English 1201

20 January 2019

I have always loved the ocean. When I was younger, my family and I would go

down to Gulf Shores, Alabama every year for spring break. Every time we would go to

the beach, I would go straight to the water and never want to leave. I am also very

interested in the different kinds of marine life, especially dolphins. One year on our

vacation, we went on a dolphin cruise, where a boat would take groups of people to an

area where dolphins are seen regularly. After that, dolphins became my favorite sea

animal. Lately, I have been hearing and seeing more and more advertisements about

pollution in the ocean. I have also been hearing about the negative impact that it is

having on many different species of marine animals. I became disappointed because I

love the ocean so much and hate to see that careless people are destroying it by

littering.

I feel very disappointed that things have gotten to the point where marine animals

are endangered because people decide to just dump their trash wherever is closest,

even if it is in the ocean. It is disappointing to hear that people are too lazy to walk a few

more steps in order to throw their trash away in the proper containers. I think that it is of

utmost importance to raise awareness of this topic. I think that the main reason why

people do not do anything to fix the issue is because they don’t know how much of a

problem it really is. I believe that we can fix this problem if people were more aware of
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what kind of negative impacts their actions cause. If more people were aware of the

severity of the situation, they might want to work harder to fix it. I already know that

many marine animals, such as sea turtles, are endangered due to the littering and

pollution. I also know that it is not just littering that causes the problem, it is also

chemical and oil spills that wind up in the ocean.

I am hoping to learn more about which species of marine life are most affected

by littering and pollution. I am also interested in learning what kinds of problems occur

with each of the different species.