ISALC, Lewis and Clark College

Our Oceans Are Under A Great Threat by Mubarak Al-Khaili

One important source of ocean pollution, 23%, comes from boating, dumped wastes and offshore oil production. It is caused by exhaust and oil, which is thrown into the ocean from boats, and it is caused also by the garbage (all kinds) that is thrown away by humans. It's very destructive for the wildlife and it's awfully hard to get rid of it (1997). For example in the 1994 cleanup by the Center for Marine Conservation, volunteers took out from three thousand different beaches about 5.6 million pieces of waste(Kowalski, 1996).

Air pollution causes 33% of ocean pollution. Air pollution includes waste from cars, factories, and combustion emissions, ash and airborne pesticides. All of them are harmful for the marine plants and the fish. As a result, the sea plants and microscopic plants become weak and they can't turn out the oxygen for us and for the marine animals. Also this makes a defect in the ecological circle of the ocean's organisms (Stiefel, 1997).

The most serious cause of the ocean pollution is runoff from land. It constitutes 44% of all the ocean pollution and this runoff includes many things. One of them is the chemical fertilizer that we use on the farms to make the plants grow well. Others are the trash, sewage, and chemicals that spill on the land(1997). Hill, (1999, p. 1) said, "rainwater washes over roads, construction sites, animals lots and industrial areas, it picks up oil, salt, grease, pesticides and other pollutants." These things cause a horrifying ecological chain reaction, and when it reaches the bottom of the ocean it create a huge number of "algae and phytoplankton" and when these living things die, and decompose, the oxygen decreases in the water which leaves behind a great numbers of dead fish. Moreover, some of the fish, which are still alive, become poisoned and cause diseases for the people and other animals when they eat them. Also, people can get diseases from swimming in the polluted ocean. They could get hepatitis A, E. coli, cholera, gastroenteritis, and the giardia, which causes injury or sometimes death.(Kowalski, 1996; Brancatelli, 1995). As Kelli McGee of American Oceans Campaign said, "People get sick when they go to beaches, and the real problem is that some states don't even monitor their water." (cited in Hill, 1999, p2).

According to Brancatelli (1995), the population on the coast of the US in 1990 was 80 million and this number will increase to 127 million by the year 2010. This report makes me worry about the oceans because I expect this increase of the population in the coastal area will make an increase in pollution too. As we know, the oceans are one of the biggest sources of life and we get a lot of benefits from it. We have already suffered from these effects of ocean pollution, so how about the next generation and the one after that? We have to think about them and about the future of our oceans. As the research shows, we should protect our environment from this source of pollution and all the people, nations and governments must cooperate to reach these goals.

Brancatelli, J. (1995, March). What is polluting our beaches?. Outdoor Life,195, 28(2). Available: Infotrac [1999, Nov. 5].

Hill, N. (1999, May). Our beleaguered beaches. E, 10, 16(1). Available: Infotrac. [1999, Nov. 9].

Kowalski, K. (1996, May). Saving our beaches. Current health 2, 22,18(2). Available: Infotrac. [1999, Nov. 9].

Stiefel, C.(1997, April 11). Fresh water : turning the tide on ocean pollution. Science World, 53, 10(2). Available: Infotrac. [1999, Nov.9].

Created by: krauss@lclark.edu
Updated: 11/14/99