What is ocean acidification?

The oceans absorb an estimated 22 million tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere every day. This shields the greenhouse effect by taking the planet-warming gas out of the atmosphere and storing it in the ocean. This causes huge problems for ocean life. This carbon mixes with the salt water to create carbonic acid, which immediately breaks down, forming bicarbonate and hydrogen and this excess hydrogen increases the water’s acidity.

Higher acidity, in turn, makes life difficult for marine animals by creating problems in their ability to form shells and skeletons. For plankton and many other species at the bottom of marine food chains, this means slower growth and population decline. These problems trickle up to affect the large fish that depend on smaller organisms for food.

Acidification also causes some coral species to grow more slowly or disappear. Since coral reefs support 25 percent of the ocean’s species of fish, this spells widespread trouble. Marine ecosystems are so interconnected, in fact, that scientists cannot predict the full effects of acidification. They only know that changes in the availability of food and in community structure can scale up quickly.

http://scienceprogress.org/2011/09/ocean-acidification-beyond-the-carbon-debate/

The average United States citizen will throw away about 185 pounds of plastic a year. Plastic takes hundreds of years to break down, and is what almost 90% of what ocean pollution is made of.

How can you help? You can use biodegradable and reusable bags when you go shopping.

 and Recycle, Recycle, and Recycle!!!

Saving a Humpback Whale from nets

This video shows how harmful fishermen nets can be. This humpback whale was deteriorating fast after getting entangled in the net. You can see how appreciative the whale is after being freed!

Did You Know?

• Plastic bags are petroleum-based and do not biodegrade.

• Sea turtles and other marine creatures mistake plastics and other garbage as food (such as jellyfish) and ingest it. This mistake causes blockages within their digestive system and eventual death.

• According to the US EPA, Americans use more than 380 billion plastic bags and wraps each year.  It takes 12 million barrels of oil to produce this many bags.  Worldwide, as many as one trillion plastic bags are used each year.  This equates to 100 million barrels of oil! 

• Plastic toxins end up in fish, which end up on our plates, which end up inside our bodies.

• In 2007, San Francisco was the first city in the United States to ban petroleum-based plastic bags in large markets and pharmacies.

Less than 5% of plastics are recycled worldwide!

Source: http://www.seeturtles.org/1128/ocean

Commercial whaling has been banned for more than twenty years. But some countries – like Norway and Japan – continue to hunt whales.

This means around 2,500 whales are still killed every year in cruel and unnecessary hunts that cause intense pain and distress.

Their meat is then sold commercially for human consumption.

 Whales are also hunted for their blubber and oil.

Whale populations have seriously decreased over time due to over-hunting.

Many different species of whales are on the endangered species list due to commercial whaling or other interference from man.




Rieser, Alison. "Whales, whaling, and the warming oceans." Boston College Environmental Affairs Law Review Summer 2009: 401-429. General OneFile. Web. 16 Apr. 2014