I used to be completely unaware how much of an impact that I made on the environment and how little things I did made such a large impact on the environment. Recently though, one of my best friends has opened my eyes to the disastrous effects of my negligence and pollution. She constantly yells at me about my pollution and now I figured I could share what she has taught me with all of you! I am sorry, but most of this will focus on the effects of pollution on marine animals because she is a marine biologist, so please just bear with me. WARNING THIS ARTICLE MAY CONTAIN DISTURBING IMAGES.
First, many people believe that littering is not that bad and I 100% used to be someone who littered. I have thrown trash out of the car or missed a trash can and not picked up my trash from the ground next to it. This is extremely dangerous to animals that live in the ocean. This trash can get washed away and end up in any source of water which all sources of water lead to the ocean in some way. Therefore these different pieces of trash can injure sea creatures.
For example, plastic bags that wash into the ocean appear as jellyfish, and what sea creature loves jellyfish? Sea turtles! Sea turtles mistake these bags for delicious jellyfish and swim over and eat them. The trouble with this is that the sea turtles choke on the bags and end up suffocating. Another piece of litter that drastically affects sea animals is six pack rings. Every animal has the chance to get stuck one of these and either alter their living for the rest of their lives or result in their death. Turtles get reshaped, seals get choked, even seagulls can be killed by these rings. The biggest issue is many people bring these to the beach with drinks in them and leave them in the sand. Please don't be the person responsible for the deaths of all of these marine animals.
Another thing that I was a perpetrator of would be letting balloons go to make wishes or just because it was fun to let them float away. Well, I have been corrected on this because while my friend and I were at a party some of the kids released balloons and she literally started crying and saying that these balloons end up over the ocean and then popping and these balloons also appear as food sources that sea creatures end up suffocating on as well. The ribbons on the balloons also entangle the animals that are trying to swim and can cause them to completely stop being able to swim.
Oil spills also greatly affect the animals that inhabit our oceans. This oil is toxic to the sea creatures and as it floats on the top level of the ocean. The animals ingest it and become poisoned and die. The oil also creates a layer on top of the ocean so all plant life and living things under that layer do not receive proper amounts of sunlight to survive. This lack of sunlight causes plant death and in turn creates loss of oxygen in the water and animal death. This plant death also impacts the animals that eat the plants by cutting out their food source.
When fishing, people tend to just cut their lines and leave the hooks when they hit a snag such as a large pile of seaweed. This is extremely dangerous to any creature in the ocean. They swim through the seaweed and get snagged on the hook and then permanently have a hook in their body. They could also try to eat the seaweed and end up ingesting that line or the hook causing them so much pain and maybe even death. The same thing goes for nets that are left in the ocean as well.
The ocean is an extremely vital resource that we have and many of these issues that occur in the ocean occur in lakes, rivers, and other bodies of water as well. So all we are asking is that you stop polluting the world that we live in and just use the proper ways to get rid of your trash. Go out of your way to pick up litter, and please don't cut your fishing lines. That way everyone can enjoy happy and cute sea and aquatic creatures.
