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Rachel Morales
D. Gyenizse
ENC 1102-U05B
11 July 2017
What is pollution doing to our Ocean and shouldn’t we be aware?
Problems are everywhere, just waiting to be solved. A huge dilemma we are facing today,
is the problem of pollution within our ecosystem, mainly what awaits us in the ocean. I have
lived in Florida all of my life, and I appreciate the beautiful blue water. I occasionally enjoy
sitting along the beach in my free time listening to the ocean crash on the shore. However, one
day, I went for a walk on the local beach to watch the amazing Florida sunset, when I accidently
came across a turtle struggling to survive with its head caught in plastic. I wondered: How did
that problem even occur and how often does that happen? Animals can easily mistake trash for
food; since trash is left on the beach, that can be dangerous to our ocean life and possibly to ours.
Trash that is left on the beach can be dangerous to our ocean life and possibly for us. Not only
plastics end up in our four oceans but also toxic wastes, oil spills, chemical fertilizers, detergents,
and other solid wastes that have built up over a millennium of humans being unmindful.
Therefore, isn’t it our duty to become educated on what is happening to our oceans and find
ways to prevent it from getting worse?
The damage being done is actually worse than we think. When researching the events
that have occurred on the problem of ocean pollution, I came upon some experiments as well as
real life occurrences of the damage done to our ocean life. According to Biologist, L. Gunton in
the article titled “This is a Worms World”, “laboratory experiments have shown that nematode
communities exposed to metal contaminants such
as zinc and copper undergo changes in their
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species composition” (Gunton 20). Nematodes are a widespread and diverse group that are the
most abundant multicellular organisms in the deep oceans. This could either be a cause of
currents scouring the seabed or from chemical pollution that comes from the factories. While
reading this article, I noticed that the smallest, slightest change in the habitat of the marine life
could affect the way they live.
I also came across some articles about real life events that have harmed our wildlife. In
the article titled “How Plastic Bags Affect Wildlife”, by the publisher Planet Ark gave us an
example:
In 1998, a pelican was found dead in Kiama after eating 17 plastic bags. The
pelican presumably thought the plastic bags were food. The pelican was preserved
