The Impacts of Marine Pollution

By: Shane O’Bannon

Ocean Conservancy

Table of Contents
Introduction 3

What is Marine Pollution 3

Why Marine Pollution is a Problem 3

Effects on Wildlife 3

Effects on Humans 4

Solution to Marine Pollution 4

Reducing the Amount of Waste Entering the Ocean 4

Cleaning up the Oceans 5

Conclusion 5

References 6
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Figures
Figure 1 3

Figure 2 4

Figure 3 5

Figure 4 6

Executive SummaryIntroduction
Marine pollution is any trash or chemicals that end up in the ocean. The majority of this pollution comes
from sources on land where the trash or chemicals are washed, dumped, or blown into the ocean. The
ocean covers more than 70 percent of the earth and plays a crucial role in maintaining life on the planet.
The effects that marine pollution has on important ecosystems and even society are constantly
overlooked. The threat only increases as time goes on and no action is taken. It is crucial that more
guidelines are put in place to prevent marine pollution and efforts are made to clean up the mess that has
already been made. The proposed solution is to ban the use and production of single use plastics and to
fund organizations that are cleaning the ocean.

What is Why Marine Pollution is a ProblemMarine Pollution

What is Marine Pollution
The main contributors are plastic waste, oil spills, mercury, manufactured chemicals, pesticides, and
nutrients. Plastic waste is the most well-known pollutant, and 11 million tons wind up in the ocean every
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year. Most plastics are not biodegradable, meaning once they are in the ocean, they will stay there until
taken out. This is a very large danger to marine life and can lead to large masses of floating trash like the
Great Pacific Garbage Patch seen below. Industrial waste and oil spills threaten marine ecosystems as
seen with the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010 where a BP oil rig exploded and spilled over 210
million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Pollution affects the entire ocean as a plastic bag was
found in the deepest part of the ocean, known as the Mariana Trench.

Figure 1: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch covers about 617,000 square miles of the
Pacific Ocean. (Forbes)

Why Marine Pollution is a Problem

Effects on Wildlife
The more direct impact of marine pollution is that on the wildlife. Plastics are the most harmful type of
pollution to the wildlife. It is very common for fish, turtles, seals, dolphins, birds, and many other species
to get tangled in some plastic waste and unless they are freed, they often die. Animals often get caught in
discarded fishing nets that are pushed along by the currents and are unable to free themselves. It is also
common for these animals to eat microplastics, which are less than 5 millimeters in diameter. Chemicals
from the plastics are absorbed into the tissue of the animals, increasing their chance of disease, and
affecting their ability to reproduce. Pollution is one of the main contributors to declining populations in
the ocean. Oil spills are another large problem for ocean wildlife. Sea mammals with fur and seabirds
become more exposed to the harsh environment when coated in oil and can die from hypothermia. These
animals will also accidentally ingest the oil while cleaning themselves or mistake it for food, effectively
poisoning themselves. Figure 2 below shows a pelican covered in oil after the bp oil spill in the Gulf of
Mexico. Microorganisms are also largely affected by oil spills. The oil affects their ability to
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photosynthesize and reduces the amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide that they can convert to oxygen.
These microorganisms are responsible for producing most of the oxygen on the planet.

Figure 2: Pelican covered in harmful oil because of the bp oil spill. (CBS
Miami)

On the flip side, industrial waste, agricultural waste, and sewage can feed algae and produce more
frequent algal blooms. These blooms are toxic and lead to massive amounts of dead marine life washed
up on shore. Increasing frequencies of toxic blooms will cause populations of different marine species to
drop. Figure 3 below is an example of a small algal bloom that left many dead fish to wash up on the
beach in Florida.

Figure 3: Algal bloom known as a red tide leaves many fish, turtles, and manatees washed up
dead in Florida. (CBS News)
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Figure 3: Algal bloom known as a red tide leaves many fish, turtles, and manatees washed up dead in Florida. (CBS News)

Effects on Humans
The effects of marine pollution on humans are more indirect and not as obvious as those on wildlife.
Humans that eat seafood are exposed to the dangerous chemicals that were absorbed into the tissue of the
animal that ate them. These chemicals can cause cancer, interfere with hormones, reduce fertility, and can
cause neurological and immune disorders. Although the subject is not well researched, there is evidence t
support these claims. There have also been invisible plastics found in tap water, beer, salt, and samples of
water from every ocean. The algal blooms mentioned above also affect humans. Some species of marine
life can survive algal blooms, but have built up toxins in their systems, such as ciguatera and domoic acid.
Humans may then eat seafood not knowing that it contains high levels of these toxins, which can cause
dementia, amnesia, paralysis, and sometimes death. Coastal communities that heavily rely on fishing for
food and income may suffer due to decreasing marine populations.

Solution to Marine Pollution

Reducing the Amount of Waste Entering the Ocean
The most crucial part in combatting marine pollution is taking steps in reducing it. The Environmental
Protection Agency has put laws in place that make dumping known harmful waste into the ocean illegal.
While this is a great step in reducing marine pollution, it simply is not enough as most marine pollution
reaches oceans through runoff and is not dumped straight into the ocean. Some countries have made plans
to ban single use products. These products,that are large contributors to marine pollution, such as plastic
bags, straws, cups, and Styrofoam products are massive contributors to marine pollution as seen in Figure
4 below.. This is a solution that should be adopted worldwide. Governments should require manufacturers
to stop producing single use plastics by the year 2030.While it is nice that some countries are recognizing
the importance of reducing the waste from these products, it is something that needs to be recognized and
acted upon on a global scale. This could be done by putting regulations in place for what products can and
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cannot be manufactured. Regulations could require manufacturers to ensure all products are
biodegradable or are made from materials that are not harmful to marine life. The idea is to make
manufacturers more responsible for the products they are making and reduce the amount of harmful waste
made rather than come up with different ways to manage harmful waste.

Cleaning up the Oceans

The second part of a long-term solution is to clean the oceans of the pollution that already exists. There
are already man organizations working one this and as technology advances, they are able to clean up
more and more waste from the ocean. Increasing the government funding available to these organizations
would allow them to increase their labor forces and utilize and develop more advanced technologies.
While the removal of waste from the ocean is extremely important, it is not as important as preventing
waste from entering the ocean. If the rate at which waste is removed from the ocean is not able to surpass
the rate of waste entering the ocean, then the amount of waste in the ocean will always be increasing. For
this reason, it is important to mainly focus on reducing waste and then shift that focus to removing waste.

Figure 44: Estimated amount of plastic in the ocean as of 2017 (Statista)

Benefits of Reducing Plastic Waste

Why Reduction
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The terms in the phrase “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” are ordered from the most effective to the least
effective, meaning reducing the amount of waste will have the greatest impact. The amount of plastic
waste entering the ocean each year is growing. The rate of plastic entering the plastic is much higher than
the rate of plastic leaving the ocean and will be even if significant amounts of funding went towards
waste removal efforts. In order for significant progress to be made in cleaning the ocean, the rate of
plastic waste entering the ocean must drop to a fraction of what it is today. This could be achieved by
banning the production of single use plastics.

Cleaning Efforts in the Future

As mentioned above, the rate of plastic entering the ocean will always be greater than the rate of plastic
leaving the ocean until the amount of plastic being produced is reduced. This means that cleaning efforts
should not be the main focus right now. It would be much easier and much more impactful to focus on
removing plastic waste from the ocean once the supply of plastic waste is greatly reduced.

Additional Benefits
The ocean is not the only thing that would benefit from banning single use plastics. There are many
ecosystems on land that suffer from plastic waste. Many birds and small mammals will eat plastic waste
because they think it is food. This introduces toxic chemicals into their ecosystems. Banning single use
plastics will help reduce the amount of harmful waste entering these ecosystems. It will also reduce the
need for landfills, which are most definitely not good for the environment.

Conclusion
The ocean plays a vital role in maintaining life on Earth and holds many crucial resources for
humans and wildlife. Most of the waste in the ocean comes from sources on land that have no business
being in the ocean and pose a huge threat to marine ecosystems. Marine pollution also poses a risk to
humans as consuming seafood exposes them to harmful chemicals and dwindling marine populations
threatens the well-being of coastal communities. The first step to restoring the oceans is preventing
harmful waste from entering the ocean and manufacturing products that are not harmful to marine life.
The next step is removing the pollutants and maintaining clean oceans. It is a problem that requires
teamwork around the globe to solve and it needs to be solved soon.
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References
“How Ocean Pollution Impacts Marine Life-and All of Us.” MarineSafe, 23 Apr. 2018,
http://www.marinesafe.org/blog/2016/04/18/how-ocean-pollution-impacts-marine-life-and-
all-of-us/.

“Marine Plastics.” IUCN, 5 Dec. 2018, https://www.iucn.org/resources/issues-briefs/marine-

plastics.

McGlade, Jacqueline, and Philip Landrigan. “Why Ocean Pollution Is a Clear Danger to Human
Health.” The Conversation, 14 Oct. 2021, https://theconversation.com/why-ocean-
pollution-is-a-clear-danger-to-human-health-152641.

National Geographic Society. “Marine Pollution.” National Geographic Society, 27 June 2019,
https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/marine-pollution/.