One Shell of a Place

One Shell of a Place

Raymon Ray

Global Connections

Instructor: Gregory Falls

December 7, 2019
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Table of Contents

Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………………..2

Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………3

Literature Review………………………………………………………………………………..4

Limitations………………………………………………………………………………………..8

Plastics…………………………………………………………………………………………...9

Oil in Our Ocean……………………………………………………………………………….12

Acidification &

Overfishing…………………………………………………………………….14

Runoff

Pollution………………………………………………………………………………...15

China’s Pollution Problem…………………………………………………………………….16

Conclusion and Further Studies……………………………………………………………...18

Interviews……………………………………………………………………………………….19

Appendix………………………………………………………………………………………..21

References……………………………………………………………………………………..25
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Abstract

Humans are killing the world by polluting its oceans and speeding up climate

change. People are letting plastic kill thousands of animals by allowing them to eat the

discarded pollution or to be caught by it. In the ocean, it’s estimated that there are 15-51

trillion pieces of plastic from the equator to the poles. The EPA says that every piece of

plastic that was made is surprisingly still in commission somewhere because of its

durability. Ocean pollution is, for the most part, man-made but there are also a few

cases of natural pollution. Humans are exploiting the ocean’s resources as well as

almost 80% of fish stocks are being used as food. They are forcing the ocean into

heating up which is leading to polar caps melting and the sea rising by 3 mm each year.

The world’s oceans are polluted by failed septic systems, oil, and chemical spills,

agriculture, et cetera. These pollutants are now well known as the contaminants that are

killing coral reefs and harming the ecosystem. Ocean beds seep oil into the ocean

which accounts for 40% of oil pollution. The other 55% comes from runoff from big

corps, offshore oil extraction, and oil on sea transportation. Toxic materials pollute the

ocean and contribute to acidification which is killing off the world’s coral reefs. These

toxic pollutants also sink to the ocean floor and are eaten by bottom dwellers. This is the

start of a contaminated food chain caused by pollution in our oceans. There are many

quick solutions regular people can make to reduce their carbon footprint on the ocean

that usually takes just a few steps more.

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Introduction

Everyone knows about pollution but do people know who’s contributing to it? Do

they know how the world’s waters are being affected by people unintentionally? How big

corporations are knowingly hurting the world’s oceans' plants and animals by dumping

waste in the ocean or overfishing. Most people aren’t aware that their actions, no matter

how small, affects our environment when everyone’s actions are lumped together. Our

ocean’s biodiversity is threatened by many factors like plastic pollution, runoff from

industrial areas, and overfishing. The big corporations are the biggest polluters in the

world but, hopefully to their dismay, everyday people contribute to their success by

purchasing their products or acting carelessly with products that could potentially hurt

the environment.

Many agencies have been trying to notify the world population about the harm

people are doing but most turn a blind eye. Big corporations are the leading polluters in

the world by dropping wastes in our ocean knowing its effects but only caring about the

money it can bring in if they make the most of their products. Governments are aware of

the pollution that is happening but they are controlled by big corporations and politicians

who can benefit from the corporations that pull in big money. It’s not all bad because

civilians have agencies that are helping in the pollution effort and that is forcing the
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government’s hand in the effort by purchasing their products or acting careless with

products that could potentially hurt the environment.

If the pollution problem isn’t fixed in the next few years it could be detrimental to

society by killing the ocean’s aquatic wildlife and polluting drinking water. People on the

earth are overfishing wildlife and depleting freshwater sources quickly because of the

number of people that are in this world. Solutions aren’t easy as saltwater is expensive

to dilute so trying to save the world’s freshwater sources is essential to the survival of

the human species. The same concept with overfishing, the marine life that is being

fished for and eaten will go extinct and the food chain will be ruined which will lead to

the extinction of the human race. Which makes stopping pollutants that can reach our

oceans to contaminate our waters or kills marine life should be the world’s top priority so

a world epidemic isn’t subject to start.

Literature Review

In this article, pollution is reaching a new level of toxicity in the ocean and is

hurting the environment in Canada more than they were expecting. In Canada, there

are no national programs dealing with marine pollution and they have also cut spending

as part of a government restraint program. Every day in Canada 2 million kilograms are

flushed from the sewers into the ocean and only half is treated. “Marine specialists have

grown so concerned that the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) has

declared reducing ocean pollution one of its top three priorities, along with the protection

of the ozone layer and the disposal of toxic waste” (Montreal Que, 1988).
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The Center for Biological Diversity started a petition for the EPA ( Environmental

Protection Agency) “to cut plastic pollution in oceans, improve monitoring and conduct a

scientific review of the human health effects of eating fish that have ingested plastics

and other pollution” (Targeted News Service, 2013). Plastic is one of the worst polluters

and it has a major impact on aquatic wildlife that could potentially die from these

pollutants. Marine animals get tangled in the plastic, birds feed their young bright pieces

of plastic instead of food, and the sea turtles eat plastic bags because they mistook

them for jellyfish. Pounds of plastics in the ocean amount up to billions and are hurting

our environment because they just float out in the middle of the ocean waiting to harm

our marine animals.

In this article, they’re explaining that even though scientists know we have a lot of

plastic in the ocean they don’t know where all of it is. Everywhere the scientists look in

the ocean they find plastic in small or large quantities. “If surveying the ocean for plastic

is expensive and difficult at the surface, it's even harder below it: researchers lack

samples from enormous areas of the deep sea that have never been explored. And

even if they could survey all these regions, the concentration is typically so dilute that

they would have to test huge volumes of water to get reliable results. Instead, they are

forced to estimate and extrapolate” (Daniel Cressey, 2016). It’s been estimated that

each year 4.7 through 12.7 million tons of plastic is put out to sea and this is excluding

plastic that is just lost at sea.

Scientists have tried to discover ways to clean the ocean of all the plastic that is

polluting the ocean. Boyan Slat proposed that we should put a giant, two-thousand-foot
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tube in the ocean that would effectively corral the plastic and collect it until it can be

picked up by an “oceanic garbage truck” and disposed of…” and would be carried by

the “waves and wind” (Crnic Ben, 2018). This idea sounded great at first but many

problems were introduced if this tube was implemented. Things like marine life being

attracted to the tube where the plastic is located or algae and bacteria growing and

weighing down the tube in the ocean are too big of problems to ignore. So a fix like this

may only last for a while but we as a people need to find a permanent solution.

Everyone knows about the big plastic in the ocean that just floats around polluting our

water but nobody is really educated on its micro counterpart. Plastic is made from

different materials but the most common are polyethylene or polypropylene. When it's

exposed to UV and waves it gets broken into smaller pieces that get eaten by fish or

just float around in the ocean. “The best solution is to prevent more plastic from

reaching the ocean. Trash traps and litter booms can snag garbage before it enters

waterways. Even better: Reduce plastic waste at its source” (Science News for

Students, 2015).

In this article, it explains that every little difference that a person contributes to this war

against plastic we could improve the health of the environment. Plastic product

consumption is estimated to double in the next 10 years and this is killing the earth. We

as people can cut down on pollution by everyone doing small efforts that make a big

difference altogether. Instead of using plastic, we can use reusable containers that can

fit food or drinks that saves plastic from being used and discarded into the ocean.
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“Since only 9 percent of plastic bottles are recycled, according to “National Geographic,”

reusable containers can serve as an ideal replacement for bottled water whether at

home or on-the-go” (University Wired, 2018).

Lots of fishing happens in the Pacific between the US and many Asian countries. These

countries were responsible for 80% of the fishing of bigeye tuna in the pacific. “The

Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) will negotiate today on an

action plan to end overfishing of bigeye tuna by 2018” (Seafood Source, 2013). They

wish to stop the overfishing of marine animals because it ruins biological processes in

the ocean. “Not only must the threat of illegal fishing be met head-on, but action is also

urgently needed to limit the damage caused by fishing gears such as longlines, wire

leaders, and fish aggregating devices, including bycatch of other species such as

sharks, many species of which are endangered in the convention area as a result of

highly unregulated longline fishing,” (Seafood Source, 2013).

The fisherman are forced into overfishing because of the demand but this is fueling a

global food chain crisis. “Traditional fishery management has motivated fishermen to

catch as much as possible as quickly as possible, without regard to the long-term health

of the fishery” (EDF). Now incentives are being given out if fishermen adhere to strict

limits on fishing. The incentives are working as well with 60% of overfishing dropping in

federal waters since 2000. So in a few countries, the overfishing problem is being

controlled but in countries that are not being monitored, it is out of control.
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Another type of pollution that we struggle with is runoff pollution that comes from the

industrial or housing complexes. This water isn’t treated like sewer water and is flowed

straight into creeks and rivers that eventually get into the ocean. Runoff dirt blocks

sunlight when it gets in the ocean and covers the homes of some aquatic life. Runoff

also leaves “grasses and marine life die, fish and other creatures that rely on them are

imperiled. The runoff also carries nutrients that spur algae blooms that cause low

oxygen and kill fish” (Chesapeake Bay Foundation). These problems can be fixed easily

by building things called rain gardens which are natural gardens and habitats. These will

soak up runoff before it gets into our water if placed in high drainage areas.

In 2015, China, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam accounted for over half of the

reported pollution in the ocean. Even though Trump pulled out of the 2015 Paris

agreement on climate change it was because he felt like other countries were not

pulling their weight. “You look at our air and our water, and it's right now at a record

clean. But when you look at China and you look at parts of Asia and you look at South

America, and when you look at many other places in this world, including Russia,

including many other places, the air is incredibly dirty” (Eilperin, J., & Dennis, B., 2019).

Some cities are having plastic straw bans but straws aren’t even close to plastic

pollution.

Limitations

Time is the biggest limitation for the author because results for ocean tests take

long periods of time. Around the clock, scientists are working for solutions to end or

reduce ocean pollution but in the time frame, the author was given to write this paper
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they were not able to find a solution. With time, expanded research could also be given

on the effects of oil drilling affecting marine life or the state of the Australian coral reefs

affected by acidification.

Another limitation is that only five percent of the ocean has been explored. We

cannot determine the full-spectrum effects of plastic on the aquatic plant and wildlife

without knowing what is down there. Scientists can only tell what is happening on the

surface water but they do not know if the deep seawater is being affected by this

pollution at all.

Some of the sources the author was looking for was in mandarin Chinese, a

language they could not understand, which established a language barrier. Some

sources were also blocked because of the restricted internet access in China. They

were only allowed to dig up sources on the surface that were globalized for everyone to

read. Once they reached a little deeper into the problem, articles were starting to be

written in Chinese or blocked from the public reading it.

The last limitation is that the author is biased on their opinion about ocean

pollution because they are very big on nature and animal life. The author hates laws

that go against nature and government regulations that allow big companies to freely

hurt the environment with no repercussions. Some negative connotations might have

been used during the paper when describing countries or companies that have

knowingly hurt the environment and had no regard for the marine life they affected.

Plastics
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Plastic pollution is affecting our world’s oceans and even though people know

about the problem and its effects somehow it gets swept under the rug in the sea of

global problems. Some environmental agencies have taken notice as The Center of

Biological Diversity made a petition for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to

look into plastic pollution. In the petition, the Center of Biological DIversity wanted the

EPA “under the Clean Water Act to develop water-quality standards for plastic pollution

and publish information to guide states in monitoring and preventing harm to waters

from plastic pollution. Although the EPA declined to develop plastic-specific

water-quality criteria, the agency agreed to expand other efforts to protect people and

wildlife from litter in oceans and other aquatic environments” (Targeted News Service,

2018). It was to also gather new information on where plastic pollution starts, ways to

manage and reduce it, and policies for states and cities to regulate their plastic

pollution. After the petition, the Environmental Protection Agency’s job was to slow

down and rid the world of this pollution so currently, they are taking steps to save our

oceans. Higher-ups at the EPA say that they are taking the initiative to “improve

monitoring and conduct a scientific review of the human health effects of eating fish that

have ingested plastics and other pollution.” (Targeted News Service, 2018).

Plastic kills in our ocean with billions of pounds found and floating islands full of

plastic like the Great Garbage patch which is twice the size of Texas. In LA, 20 tons of

plastic is pushed into the Pacific each day which includes plastic bags, straws, and soda

bottles. It is said that the “global production of plastics rises every year - it is now up to

around 300 million tonnes - and much of it eventually ends up in the ocean. Plastic litter
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is left on beaches, and plastic bags blow into the sea. The vast quantities of plastics

dumped as landfill can if the sites are not properly managed, easily wash or blow away.

Some sources are less obvious: as tires wear down, they leave tiny fragments on roads

that leach into drains and into the ocean” Cressey, 2016). All over the planet, you can

find plastic in places you would have never thought. Scientists know some of the

effects of plastic but they still are “struggling to answer the most basic questions: how

much plastic is in the oceans, where, in what form and what harm it's doing. That's

because science at sea is hard, expensive and time-consuming. It is difficult to

comprehensively survey vast oceans for small - sometimes microscopic - plastic

fragments” (Cressey, 2016). These plastic fragments are called micro-plastics and

scientists still don’t know the full effects of it. The way microplastics form is because

they break down in sunlight and waves which after continuously breaking down they can

be almost microscopic. A researcher, Andres Cozar, went out on an expedition to try

and scope how much plastic was in the ocean. Based on the plastic that was estimated

to be in the ocean they were shocked that the number of microplastics was lower than

estimated. Cozar brainstormed several reasons why this happened and he came up

with that “The tiniest bits might have broken down quickly into particles too small to

catch in his net. Or maybe something caused them to sink. But a third explanation

seems even more likely: Something ate them” (Science News Washington, 2015).

One of the biggest problems with plastic in the ocean is the ecosystem and the

wildlife that it affects. Wildlife is either eating this toxic plastic or the bigger predators

are eating the smaller fish which are eating this plastic. Lots of marine life and birds
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mistake plastic for food because of the odor it gives off as it is very similar to their

original food. Research and tests were conducted on anchovies to observe fish

behavior with microplastics entered into the food chain. The anchovies were not fed

actual plastic but they were fed a food with 2 types of odor: plastic debris and clean

plastic. They responded to the plastic debris while not even acknowledging the clean

plastic. “Anchovies are one of some 700 species of animals and fish that have eaten

ocean plastic, the study concludes. Savoca chose anchovies to study because of their

role in the food chain. “They are an important link in coastal marine systems,” he says.

“They eat krill (small shrimp). But they are also food for humpback whales and sea lions

and seals and seabirds and even people.” (Parker, 2017). Anchovies aren’t the only

wildlife being affected because “Sea turtles and toothed whales gulp down plastic bags,

mistaking them for squid. Sea birds scoop up floating plastic pellets, which can

resemble fish eggs. Young albatross have been found dead from starvation, their

stomachs full of plastic garbage. While feeding, adult seabirds skim floating trash with

their beaks. Parent birds then regurgitate the plastic to feed their young” (Science News

for Students, 2015). Marine life is eating this plastic inadvertently but slowly this is

killing the food chain. Scientists did a report on the Laysan Albatross chicks and they

were shocked about the results because a lot die before fledging. The forty percent of

these Laysan Albatross chicks that died were found with plastic trash in their stomachs

after the necropsies. The plastic debris they eat soak up the toxic chemicals from

seawater which kill these creatures “because plastic pellets are magnets for toxic

chemicals like DDT and PCBs, they effectively become poison pills. Japanese
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researchers found that concentrations of these chemicals were as much as a million

times higher than in the water” (International Bird Rescue).

Oil in Our Ocean

Oil is the second source of ocean pollution that should be focused on because it

pollutes the world’s water sources and ecosystems. People may think that most of the

oil in the ocean is from publicized oil spills or oil leaks but that is only around eight

percent of the pollution. Oil spills are also mostly different from when pictures surface

online with ducks and other animals stuck in tar on a beach. The sources of oil that

enter the ocean are as follows: natural seeps, land vehicles, recreational boats, and the

use or consumption of oil. Natural seeps are account for forty percent of oil in oceans

all over the world so this is the biggest source. The way these seeps happen is the oil

is pushed out of highly pressurized seafloor rocks and floats to the top because oil is

less dense than water. It has been found that Santa Barbara has one of the largest

seafloor cracks in the world which lets twenty to twenty-five tons of oil seep into the

ocean on a daily basis. Naturally, this isn’t that bad because bacteria have evolved into

oil-eating bacteria which manages the amount of oil in places where it is produced

naturally. This doesn’t work everywhere though because “places which don't have

natural oil seeps and you come along with an oil spill or a sewer pipe that delivers [oil

pollution], organisms have not had an opportunity to adapt and are going to respond

differently," said John Farrington, dean emeritus and marine geochemist with Woods

Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts” (Dell’Amore, 2017). Oil extractions

also have a small contribution to oil in the ocean but it’s not a big source of
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pollution.”The good blowout that caused the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of

Mexico in 2010 is a (very large) example of an oil spill occurring during extraction

activities” (Office of Response and Restoration, 2015). These types of spills aren’t

frequent or everywhere because they can only possibly occur where oil drilling is

happening.

Overfishing & Acidification

Two types of pollution issues that most people don’t really know about are

overfishing and acidification because who would think we could outfish species inside

our ocean’s and that a giant body of water could slowly become acidic. It’s said that the

“world's oceans absorb about a third of all the carbon dioxide emitted by the burning of

fossil fuels. The ocean has warmed by about 1C since pre-industrial times, and the

water increased to be 30% more acidic” (Milman, 2015). Acidification in the ocean

hardens the process for coral, oysters, and mussels to form shells and structures that

help them live. Coral bleaching is a direct consequence of acidification and it’s killing

aquatic wildlife. In 2015, thirty-eight percent of coral reefs were affected and five

percent died off from the strain. Coral reefs may not seem important because they only

make up .1% of the ocean floor but they also house twenty-five percent of known

marine species. The loss of coral reefs and the downsizing of marine species “will be a

direct concern for hundreds of millions of people who rely upon seafood for sustenance,

medicines, and income. The loss of coral reefs could also worsen coastal erosion due to
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their role in protecting shorelines from storms and cyclones” (Milman, 2015). Famous

coral reefs like the Australian Great Barrier Reef has lost over fifty percent of its size in

the past thirty years. At this rate, by the year twenty fifty, this reef could be completely

wiped out with its unique species or on its last legs in its survival. On the other side of

things, overfishing is how it sounds, catching way too many fish then the species

breeding population cannot recover. Overfishing leads to the death of ecosystems

because its a chain reaction when one species goes down. The fish that usually ate the

depleted fish now has a smaller food source so it has to scavenge and intrude on other

food sources, which leads to a cycle with all marine life scavenging for food which will

crash the ecosystem. With regulations, fishing can be managed and the world can

avoid a major food crisis that would affect everyone. “Japan, China, the U.S.,

Indonesia, Chinese Taipei, and South Korea have been named by Pew Charitable

Trusts on a “shame list” of countries responsible for overfishing tuna in the Pacific”

(Seafood Source, 2013). A species of fish called the bigeye tuna is almost exclusively

being caught by these countries mentioned above as they catch at least eighty percent

of this species. Fishing management is a big thing in today’s world for this exact reason

and can lead to marine life replenishing and thriving. An example is in the Gulf of

Mexico where “red snapper populations are three times what they were in 2007” after

the U.S helped reform and installed regulations on fisheries. (Environmental Defense

Fund)

Runoff Pollution
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Runoff pollution is when rainwater washes things like fertilizers, pesticides, oils,

and anything else that could contaminate a water source. It isn’t treated like most water

as that gets treated at water plants and such. Runoff is whatever is on the road, in the

lawn, or spilled on driveways that get washed into local rivers, bays, lakes, or oceans.

“Eroded dirt from the runoff blocks sunlight from reaching underwater grasses, and

smother the aquatic homes of oysters and other life. As grasses and marine life die,

fish and other creatures that rely on them are imperiled. The runoff also carries

nutrients that spur algae blooms that cause low oxygen and kill fish” (Chesapeake Bay

Foundation, 2019). People are also affected by runoff pollution with Maryland issuing a

no swimming limit within 48 hours of heavy rainfall. States are failing to stop runoff even

with nine million pounds of nitrogen and five hundred thousand pounds of phosphorus

flowing into water sources each year. All of the treated “pollution discharged from

sewage plants, agriculture, and other major sources is declining. This problem with

runoff is one of the main reasons the Bay remains on the "dirty waters" list of the U.S.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)” (Chesapeake Bay Foundation, 2019).

China’s Pollution Problem

There is water everywhere so obviously pollution can be everywhere in the world

too. “China dumped a total of 200.7 million cubic meters of waste into its coastal waters

in 2018, a 27% rise on the previous year and the highest level in at least a decade, the

country’s environment ministry said on Tuesday” (Xu, 2019). China is a big factor in

ocean pollution contributing to at least one-third of the world’s plastic pollution a year.

“Plastic bottles, barrels, bags, toothbrushes and even syringes are piled high around
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rural villagers and migrant workers tasked with recycling it. They sort, clean and break

up the rubbish before putting the pieces into furnaces where they are melted and

remolded, eventually to be processed into small granules” (Jing, 2015). This process is

heavily straining on the environment because China has no regulations to follow and

they can do whatever they want without repercussions. The plastic process in china

pollutes the waterways, releases toxic gas in the air, and the pieces are left just

discarded into water. In rural areas, plastic waste is either burned or thrown directly in

the ocean because even with the little to no regulation in the city, the rural parts have

absolutely no regulations at all. “Meanwhile, China was also the world's largest importer

of plastic waste, much of it from the United States, according to Wang, the filmmaker.

Some plastic waste was even smuggled into China, as some areas of the business had

become very profitable” ( Jing, 2015). Lots of the waste is concentrated inside of the

Yangtze and Pearl rivers which are the major industrial areas on China’s east coast.

China is slowly trying to clean up its rivers but to do that they need another place to

dump all of their waste. The only other place they could think of is the Pacific ocean

where no one would regulate how much waste they could dump into it. “China found an

average of 24 kilograms of floating trash per 1,000 square meters of surface water last

year, 88.7% of which was plastic, the ministry said. Plastic also dominated the waste

found below the surface, including on the seabed” (Xu, 2019).

China keeps twenty percent of the world’s population while only having seven

percent of the world’s freshwater. With China polluting their water sources they are

trying to find a way to get rid of their plastic problem most of all. They say “the
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hydrolysis process breaks down the molecules to form acids, water, and oxygen when

exposed to water in a similar process to the way that substances such as sugar

dissolve” (Shen, 2018). They say the mixture will break down plastic once it hits the

water because of the reaction between charged atoms. The scientist has filed a patent

for his degradable plastic for water idea and has authorized 4 factories to start making it

this year.

Conclusion and Further Studies

The ocean is a place where aquatic plants and wildlife are supposed to be

thriving with their only competitive factors being other fish. In 2019, factors like oil,

plastic, acidification, runoff, and overfishing are reasons people are killing the earth and

its marine life. Companies and consumers alike need to take accountability for their

actions against humanity and take on the job cleaning up the ocean or to help find

simple solutions everyone can do. They can be spreading awareness and getting

people to donate which could make all the difference in finding a way for the world to

have degradable plastic or for a way to keep oil spills contained. Scientists are rushing

to find a solution to these problems that are plaguing the earth but they simply do not

have enough research or time because the rate of pollution is astonishing. There is no

simple solution to any of these problems and they can’t be fixed by just throwing a lot of

money at it. This being said, it all starts at the sources that are providing for their
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consumers and if the consumers keep buying the producers will keep making. So in all

reality, until scientists find a way to control this problem the best way to help our world

and its marine life is for global citizens to spread awareness and cut back from buying

products that they are positive is killing the ocean.

Interviews

The following interview was conducted with Aisha Wilkinson

1. Would you say that you have a positive effect on the environment?

“Yes, I would say I have a positive impact on the environment. I recycle every 2

weeks and try to keep the earth green. I try to teach my children to help the earth

and be green because the habits you share with your child are habits that will

stay.”

2. Do you know about all of the types of ocean pollution that can occur?

“No, the only source of pollution that I am most aware of is the plastic causing

harm to sea life and the efforts that have been made to try and clean it up.”

3. Do you have any habits that contribute to stopping ocean pollution?

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“No, I do try to buy water bottles but I still buy plastic so I don’t know if it offsets

my plastic consumption. I am sure not to bring plastics on the beach with me and

I make sure to bring metal canisters and beach bags”Now that you know more

about ocean pollution, will you do more to keep your ocean clean?

Yes, I will try my best.

4. If I were a congressman looking for a possible solution, what would you propose?

“So, I read that they have these drag nets that can take all of the plastic out the

water. I would propose funding which could be raised by taxing any plastic

consumption and items sold so that the money would go to products and

cleaning services in the ocean. And maybe some beaches would not allow

plastic on the beach and if they are found with plastic they will be fined.“

5. Now that you know more about ocean pollution, will you do more to keep your

ocean clean?

“Yes, I will try my best.”

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Appendix

Appendix A
China’s water sources
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Appendix B
Plastic that has washed up on beaches
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Appendix C
Runoff Pollution diagram
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Appendix D
Types of oil pollution
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