Sewage is Another Important Kind of Ocean Pollution

Did you know that without the ocean, you would not be able to survive in this world? The ocean provides us with the water we drink and the air we breathe. Ocean Pollution is becoming a major problem, some people just don’t care about the ocean. Most people think that throwing trash in our local waters would not have an affect on them. What they don’t know is that the ocean not only that it affects marine life, but also human life. We question what causes ocean pollution and we also question what we can do about it to solve this problem. There are chemical spills, sewage pollution, global warming, effects on marine life and effects on human life as well. Ocean Pollution may be a huge problem but many don’t consider it to be as big of a problem than getting free wifi for a hotel room.

One of the major problems of ocean pollution is chemical pollution. For example, automobiles and coal-burning power plants release harmful particles into the atmosphere. These particles settle in the water, carrying with them chemicals such as mercury. Mercury can grow into tiny plankton, which are eaten by fish, and ends up affecting humans as they eat the fish. “Chemical pollution can come from a single large event, such as an oil spill, but it also comes from many small sources, such as oil leaked by automobiles and carried by rain and waterways to the ocean. Only a small portion of oil in the ocean comes from major spills”(Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia). All different types of chemicals have different effects on humans it really depends on where it came from. “Bacterial, viral and parasitic diseases like typhoid, cholera, encephalitis, poliomyelitis, hepatitis, skin infection and gastrointestinal are spreading through polluted water”(Mehtab Haseena).

Another form of pollution in the ocean is sewage. “Sewage is another important kind of ocean pollution that must be solved because it carries disease-causing microbes. When it rains, sewage is often discharged into harbors and beaches. Towns may monitor bacteria levels in the water to alert beachgoers when the water is polluted with sewage”(Alfred J. Andrea). For example, all the trash that people litter in the streets gets washed into the sewer whenever it rains. Usually the sewer is for water to go in when it rains but it turns out that the trash will be dragged along with the water. According to an article “Ocean Pollution” by Maclnnes David F., Jr., and Kahler Karen N, “Land-based sources account for approximately 80 percent of the pollutants that enter the marine environment.” Most of the trash comes from the sewage due to all the rain storms that occur. Therefore sewage is a major cause of illness around the world due to the viruses and the bacteria being spread around in the ocean from all the rainstorms. Therefore the sewage is being mixed with all the viruses and bacteria in the ocean, which is a major cause of illness around the world.

Global Warming has an impact on the ocean due to the climate change. Climate change causes rising sea levels and it ends up creating a tsunami or even an earthquake. With global warming, tsunamis will become more common and wipe out coastal cities. “Climate change is affecting ocean temperatures, the supply of nutrients, ocean chemistry, food chains, wind systems, ocean currents and extreme events such as cyclones”(Healey). The burning fossil fuels is the main cause of global warming, fossil fuels could also be involving ocean plastic debris and tiny fish living beneath the sea. Fish at the bottom of the sea end up eating plastic debris rather than eating the food they are suppose to eat. Global warming can cause a large amount of sea creatures to lose its population.

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