Our Watery Grave

Our Watery Grave

On our planet the ocean cover more than 70% of the planets surface and yet we have more information about space than we do about oceans. Most of the life on this planet is aquatic and yet we decided to contaminate that environment and pollute the oceans.

Let’s start with a brief definition of what the oceanic pollution is and what is causing it, according to the National Geographic Society (National Geographic Society, 2019)

Marine pollution is a combination of chemicals and trash, most of which comes from land sources and is washed or blown into the ocean. This pollution results in damage to the environment, to the health of all organisms, and to economic structures worldwide.

So why does our trash end up at the ocean? We are overproducing single use plastic things. We are overproducing and overusing plastic bags, straws, water bottles cups and cutlery are the main example of this why this is a problem.

Now, let’s say that we ban all the single use plastics, is the problem done? The answer is no, we still have 2 fundamental problems to deal with. The biggest polluters of the oceans are the industrial spills on the oceans and fishing. Let’s address them individually.

There are a lot of types of spills in the ocean, the most common are sewage, oil, and chemicals spills. It is important to clarify that a large portion of the sewage water that end up on our oceans is not treated at any point, that makes it highly toxic for the environment that it ends up in, for example 80% of the sewage water that ends up un the Mediterranean ocean is never treated. Furthermore, Oil spills only contribute to 12% of the oil in the ocean. 36% of the oil comes from runoff sources from cities and companies. And finally, chemical spills affect the food chain and contaminates the fishes that in the end we are going to be eating causing us health problems. (Bucker, 2019)

Now, fishing on its own is not dangerous or a pollutant, but there are 2 main problems with fishing, overfishing, and trawling. Overfishing affects the food chain and endangers species. Then, trawling, which is fishing with a net that goes on the seafloor, can significantly damage the sensitive areas of the ocean like corals, sponges and seagrass beds and as it is impossible to control what is caught and what is not a lot of fishes that are not meant to be catch end up being, this process is called bycatch.

References: 

https://www.rubicon.com/blog/ocean-pollution-facts/

https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/marine-pollution/