There are many problems related with the ocean and marine life, most of them related with oceanic pollution. The plan is to try to stop this pollution but it goes deeper than that, since by stopping trash to be thrown at the ocean it also helps the animal species that are endangered because of consuming all of this trash. We should take care of the ocean since it is not only a place where people goes to, there is a whole ecosystem in there and as much as we humans like to go there we should take responsibility and do not pollute.
Plastic pollution is the biggest problem marine life has against it. According to the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) approximately 1.4 billion pounds of trash per year enter the ocean, this means that about 3.8 million pounds of trash per day enter the ocean. In consequence many species are endangered since some of the trash sinks to the bottom of the ocean and animals eat it mistaking it with food; an example for this are marine turtles, approximately 50% of sea turtles consume plastic that ends up obstructing their digestive system, but not only the underwater animals are consuming it. This means that in a few years from now there would be a significant amount of endangered species due to the consumption of plastic. Over the time they have discovered huge Plastic Garbage Patches all over the world and recently Henderson Island located in the South Pacific region was crowned the most plastic-polluted island on Earth as it was found that it is covered in roughly 38 million pieces of trash.
Another huge problem for this environment and ecosystem is the huge number of oil spills all around the world. According to the water encyclopedia approximately 706 million gallons of oil are spilled in the ocean every year either by accident or by intent, this problem has been around since 1990. Most of this waste comes from oily drainage from cities and farms, untreated disposal from factories, and unregulated recreational boating. The immediate effect of the spills is mass mortality and contamination of fish, but this is not the worst it can do, the long-term ecological effect is that it will destroy the marine organic substrate and in consequence disrupt the food chain so species will either change or disappear because of this. Aftermath we would not end up without fish, we would also end up having a really polluted ocean. An example of this problem can be seen in Prince William Sound and along the coast of Alaska after there was a massive oil spill in 1989, even though many ways to clean it were tried up to this date there is still visible residue. Let’s set the scene for the next example; 1991, the persian gulf suffering a war between persians and americans, and the only way the Persians found to stop the U.S to do beach landings was to cause the second greatest oil spill ever recorded about 240 million gallons of crude oil, it created over 200 oil lakes throughout the desert some deeper than 6 feet.
The last issue that is going to be discussed is the residue of chemical waste in the ocean and how is it affecting the environment. Even though each industrial plant or manufacturer dispose of different chemicals, and this by itself may not affect, when this combine in the ocean, river, lake, etc.