
Humans in the modern consumeristic world create endless amounts of waste. As we use resources and products for our everyday "necessities," we do not consider where these items go once discarded. Surprising to many, a lot of this garbage ends up in the oceans. Whether intentional or accidental the debris can come from either land or sea. About 4/5th of marine debris comes from land, it can be washed from city streets into rivers and out to the oceans. The rest originates from illegal dumping off of boats to avoid the cost of proper waste disposal (Weiss). All of this trash that has entered the oceans over the last century is concentrated in five large sections called "garbage patches," located in the North and South Pacific Ocean, North and South Atlantic Ocean, and the Indian Ocean. The largest of these is The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which consists of the North and South Pacific Garbage patches; together they are "a slowly rotating mass of trash-filled water about twice the size of Texas" (Weiss). It has been referred to as a "trash vortex," "the world's largest rubbish dump," and a "vast mass of floating debris" midway between Hawaii and California (Kaiser). Ninety percent of litter in the ocean is plastic, including durable materials such as polyethylene and polypropylene, Styrofoam, and nylon (Weiss). Plastic is so widely used due to its characteristics of being light, durable, strong, versatile, and having a low cost of production. In 2009, global plastic production was roughly 230 million tons of which 29.8 million tons were used and discarded in the United States. The useful characteristics of plastic that helped increase plastic production combined with careless disposal management are hugely a part of why it is such an environmental hazard (Sesini). Like anything else thrown into the environment, over time the material degrades. Plastics eventually break down into carbon dioxide and water from exposure to heat and the sun's ultraviolet rays. On land, the process can take decades, even centuries. At sea, it can take even longer because seawater keeps plastics cool while algae, barnacles, and other marine growth block ultraviolet rays. Because these materials do not degrade quickly and are so lightweight, they can circulate through ocean currents for decades. Anthony Andrady says that "Every little piece of plastic manufactured in the past 50 years that made it into the ocean is still out there somewhere." The U.N. Environment Program estimates that 46,000 pieces of plastic are floating on every square mile of the ocean (Weiss). Evidence shows that quantities are ever increasing and hence so is the magnitude of the resulting problems. 

One of the biggest attention seeking issues regarding marine debris is the visual aspects of concentrated garbage along shorelines and beaches (Gregory). Littered beaches are unsightly and dangerous, which can interrupt the touristic activity of a beach. Debris can also lead to long-term deterioration of beaches; Some beaches have such high concentrations of small plastic particles that the sand itself is composed of plastic (Weiss). Plastic beaches would mean the destruction of habitats for many marine organisms. A number of species of birds and sea turtles lay their eggs on beaches; this would mean the obstruction of a life cycle and could cause some species to become extinct. Other species such as walruses and seals spend most of their lives on beaches. This small change in the lifestyles of many species of organisms could lead to a much larger problem. Interruption of life cycles could potentially throw off the balance of the food chain, affecting almost every level. 

The immense amounts of garbage pose an extreme threat to marine wildlife and the ecosystem. Large debris such as fishing nets can cause animals to become entangled leading to death from injury, starvation, or debilitation (Gregory). Every year along the east coast of the South Island of New Zealand humpback whales can be seen on their annual passage north, towing a mass of rope and other debris they have become entangled with. Plastic packing loops and discarded plastic six-pack carriers are known for animals becoming caught in a loop which may tighten and cut into the flesh as the animals grow, leading ultimately to strangulation if caught around an animal's neck. Over 250 species, including turtles, penguins, whales, dolphins, seals, sea lions, and sea otters, are known to be impacted by entanglement. Smaller pieces of trash can be ingested causing blockage, suffocation or malnutrition. Over 100 species of seabirds are known to ingest plastic artifacts and/or become entangled with them (Gregory). An estimated 1 million seabirds choke or get tangled in debris every year, and about 100,000 seals, sea lions, whales, dolphins, and sea turtles suffer the same fate. John Klavitter, a wildlife biologist, says it is typical to find objects including but not limited to: bottle caps, golf tees, fishing line, cigarette lighters, bucket handles, toothbrushes, syringes, and basically anything else made of plastic inside dead albatross at Midway Atoll (Weiss). Klavitter has estimated that Albatross feed their chicks about five tons of plastic a year at Midway, 40% of these chicks die, their bellies full of trash. These birds alone count for an enormous amount of pollution-related deaths per year. Other, more beloved species, suffer similar if not worse fates. One of the most common instances is Sea Turtles mistaking plastic shopping bags for jellyfish. These bags become lodged in the turtle's throat, blocking the airway and suffocating them to death. While large debris is a significant problem, the more startling reality lies within the smaller particles. Most of the pollution in the oceans is small plastic particles that have either formed from larger pieces degrading or are the by-product of plastic production. When these pieces become small enough, several species mistake them for food such as brightly colored krill. These pieces can become lodged in the windpipe suffocating animals, move through the digestive tract causing internal damage, or become lodged in the digestive tract causing a blockage which can also lead to death. These plastics not only cause damage physically but many, chemically. When I talk about plastic particles that are a "by-product of plastic production," I specifically mean small plastic pellets that plastic manufacturers discard. These pellets absorb chemicals from sea water very well. Many of the chemicals being absorbed are toxic. Once absorbed by the pellets, fish mistake these for food and ingest them. The toxins are then absorbed into the organism's tissues where they will stay until an organism higher on the food chain consumes it. The toxins are then dispersed into this second organism's tissue, but since the animal is larger the concentration of the toxins increases. This fact may not alarm too many people until we realize that at the very top of the food chain are the humans! Simply by consuming fish, which is already a main part of human diets around the world, we could be poisoning ourselves.

These toxic plastic pellets are not the only poisonous danger facing humans in relation to the ocean. Many species already contain minerals that are toxic to humans when the meat is ingested. Large marine organisms such as sharks, dolphins, and whales contain lethal poisons like mercury. In the United States, it is taboo to eat these animals, but norms in other cultures are much different. In Japan delicacies such as shark fin stew are very common. Also, many times whale and dolphin meat are purposefully mislabeled at restaurants as sushi. Smaller fish can have high concentrations of mercury due to industrial waste dumping. Ingesting enough tainted meat can lead to neurological problems and death. The largest epidemic of mercury poison through seafood occurred in 1956 in a small fishing village in Japan called Minamata. The residents started experiencing slurred speech, blurred vision, tremors, and other unexplained symptoms that resembled cerebral palsy. It was many years until it was discovered that the poisoning was coming from fish in the bay where a company had been dumping its industrial waste. From then on methyl mercury poisoning through contaminated seafood became known as "Minamata Disease" (Harada). Methyl Mercury basically causes the neural connections in our brains to dissolve and that is why people who ingested too much, experienced these symptoms. Since this outbreak, measures have been taken to prevent another, but that does not mean the threat is completely gone. Scientists Shawn Booth and Dirk Zeller compared average human methyl mercury exposure from the consumption of whale meat and cod, finding that a large portion of the population exceeded levels set by the World Health Organization and the Environmental Protection Agency (Booth). These concentrations are not high enough to cause symptoms as serious as Minamata Disease, but if they were to increase we could have another serious epidemic. A problem with this seafood-influenced health risk, is that significant studies and management plans have not been performed, so we are very unprepared if methyl mercury poisoning breaks out. In addition to cleaning the oceans for wildlife's sake, we must focus on our own security of health in relation to the ocean.

Forms of pollution other than litter and garbage also cause problems in our oceans. We have all heard of global warming and increased carbon dioxide emissions, but what most people don't know is that the oceans absorb a large percentage of the carbon dioxide that humans release into the atmosphere. In the past 200 years the oceans have absorbed approximately half of the carbon dioxide produced by fossil fuel burning and cement production. Increased carbon dioxide emissions are leading to the acidification of the oceans which can lead to harmful effects to important marine life, including phytoplankton, corals, and calcifying organisms. Phytoplankton are probably the most important organisms in the oceans. These tiny creatures convert sunlight into energy and form the base of the food web on which all other marine life is sustained. Corals provide a safe habitat for a large number of important fish species to reproduce and live. Without these two groups of organisms, the entire marine food chain could collapse. Many species would go extinct, and humans would have to replace a major food source. In an attempt to combat these problems, we must find a way to reduce ocean acidification. Our ability to do this through artificial methods such as the addition of chemicals is unproven. These techniques will at best be effective only at a very local scale, and could also cause damage to the marine environment. Reducing carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere appears to be the only practical way to minimize the risk of large-scale and long-term changes to the oceans (Raven). Without a large scale plan for reducing carbon emissions, individuals must take it upon themselves to lower their carbon footprint in an effort to save the ocean ecosystem.

Another type of pollution almost everyone is familiar with is oil spills. Oil spills can be extremely harmful to marine wildlife such as birds and otters; they may die to lethal toxicity, effects of direct coating, or alteration of habitat (Moore). Several inventions and patents have been invented for cleaning up oil spills. In the past, techniques such as using detergents to disperse the oil, or towing a chain of logs to collect the oil have proven ineffective. Today, more advanced technologies are used, including an "Oil Skimming Apparatus" (Fitzgerald). When oil leaks or spills into a body of water, its properties cause it to rise to the surface of the water in the form of a slick that can cover extremely large areas. This machine utilizes an impermeable sheer that floats to stay above the water level in order to confine the oil in laterally and clean up the oil spill while minimizing the harm done to animals. The flexibility of the sheer cover moves with wave motion to capture all oil, even in choppy waters. Cleanup techniques and equipment are very useful in trying to restore the environment after it has already been polluted, but this is only half the battle. Strategies must be in place to prevent environmental pollution before it is too late to clean up. 

In the past, governments around the world have implemented legislation and waste reduction systems to decrease the amount of waste that ends up in the environment. In the US specifically, the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, also known as the Clean Water Act, was enacted to protect and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the waters of the United States. In addition, the Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act (MPRSA) was enacted to establish a comprehensive waste management system to regulate disposal of materials in marine waters. More specifically MPRSA was enacted to prevent dischargers from evading the Clean Water Act by dumping waste in the ocean as an alternative to land-based sites (Sesini). These acts have definitely limited the amount dumped into the oceans, but clearly not to the extent necessary. 

To combat the detrimental effects of ocean pollution scientists from around the world have been creating ways to rid the ocean of this garbage. One young man named Boyan Slat has invented a series of stagnant ray-shaped trolls to be placed around the globe in major current pathways to collect plastic and other garbage. Other scientists believe that increased human efforts are the way to clean the oceans. Through the combination of increasing government regulations, recycling and reduction promotion, larger volunteer cleanups, and more research and technology development (Sesini), we can work as a community to clean the oceans. Illegal dumping on land, littering, and littering associated with recreational beach activities and events can be reduced by promoting activities that promote the "4Rs" of reduction, reuse, recycling, and recovery in local waste management (Sesini). Some people believe the government should step up and impose requirements that manufacturers provide information on their products and that retailers share information on the potential for reducing the environmental impact of their products through a low waste labeling system (Sesini). So far the main focus of enacted policies has been on the prevention of marine debris as a long term strategy. However, a complete and well rounded marine debris mitigation strategy should include concrete actions and responses to marine debris that is already present in the environment, until prevention goals are attained. These would include shore cleanups, enforcement of laws related to marine debris, and research and technology development. Collaborative private/nonprofit partnerships have been created to help reduce and prevent marine debris. For example, Project Kaisei, and Covanta Energy, partner up to clean up the ocean debris starting with the plastic in the North Pacific Gyre, with a yearly goal of recycling 50 tons of marine debris into renewable energy. Covanta Energy uses the debris collected by Project Kaisei to "test its new waste-to- fuel technology to convert the plastic into a diesel substitute using a catalytic process for converting solid organic materials directly to mineral diesel fuel" (Sesini). Programs like this that do not just relocate the garbage, but instead repurpose it, should be an example for the type of programs necessary to make a significant difference in the ocean pollution problem. 

Evidence proves that we cannot continue to pollute the earth in the current way that we do. The detrimental effects on the oceans will only have equal or greater effects on humans. With the many possible solutions and ideas surrounding these issues, it is important to consider them all. One solution is not the finite answer or way to clean the oceans and return the marine ecosystem to a steady state, it will take a combination of many solutions, government effort, and citizen activism. By placing several cleaning systems throughout the oceans, implementing widespread and more frequent beach cleanups, and passing stricter and more useful laws and regulations regarding pollution, we can clean the oceans at a rate much higher than we would by only using one of these strategies. 

