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

What is the biggest source of ocean pollution?

80% of ocean pollution comes from land. Nonpoint (NPS)source, which is an effect from a runoff, includes many small sources, like septic tanks, cars, trucks, and boats, plus larger sources, such as farms, ranches, and forest areas. Millions of cars drop small amounts of oil each day onto roads and parking lots.

Much of this, too, makes its way to the sea.

How climate change effects ocean life

Warming ocean temperatures  could eliminate much, if not all, marine habitat for Pacific sockeye salmon, and probably other salmon as well. Sockeyes are extremely temperature-sensitive: their metabolism increases in warmer water, requiring larger amounts of food.

Coral reefs, the most biologically diverse and beautiful marine ecosystems, are also at extreme risk.  The upper heat tolerance for many reef corals is just a few degrees above normal temperatures. Any warmer, the reefs begin to bleach and die. Large numbers of corals are turning completely white and dying, with over 90 percent mortality in parts of the Indian Ocean.

 Polar Regions suffer worse biological impacts than lower latitudes. Sea ice is diminishing in both the Arctic and Antarctic, depriving wildlife of hunting and breeding grounds.

Works Cited

Matthews-Amos, Amy, and Ewann A. Berntson. "Climate Change Harms Ocean Life." Earth Island Journal 14.3 (1999): 20. Academic Search Complete. Web. 15 Apr. 2014.

Overfishing and its impact

With an ever-accelerating tide of human impact, the oceans have changed more in the last 30 years than in all of human history before. In most places, the seas have lost upwards of 75 percent of large animals such as whales, dolphins, sharks, rays, and turtles -- as fishing and hunting spread in waves across the face of the planet. Species, like white tip sharks, American sawfish, or more common fish, numbers are down as much as 99 percent. By the end of the 20th century, almost nowhere shallower than 3,000 feet remained untouched by commercial fishing. Some places are now fished down to 10,000 feet.

If we stay on this current path, our seas will be depleted of fish in 50 years.

How can you help?

avoid eating fish that are overexploited in the wild or taken using methods that harm other wildlife

 Eat low in the food web,  by eating smaller fish

 Choose pole- and line-caught animals which is less harmful

Choose organic when possible, your fish will have been dosed with fewer chemicals.

Works cited

ROBERTS, CALLUM. "The Sorrow Beneath The Sea." Newsweek 159.21 (2012): 26-31. Academic Search Complete. Web. 15 Apr. 2014.

In 2008 the polar bear became the first animal to be added to the U.S. Endangered Species list because of climate change.

Sea life is now in peril. Over the last 50 years -- a mere blink in geologic time -- humanity has come perilously close to reversing the almost miraculous biological abundance of the deep. Pollution, overfishing, the destruction of habitats, and climate change are emptying the oceans and enabling the lowest forms of life to regain their dominance.

The prospect of vanishing whales, polar bears, Blue-fin tuna, sea turtles, and wild coasts should be worrying enough on its own. But the disruption of entire ecosystems threatens our very survival, since it is the healthy functioning of these diverse systems that sustains life on earth. Destruction on this level will cost humans dearly in terms of food, jobs, health, and quality of life. It also violates the unspoken promise passed from one generation to the next of a better future.

Works Cited

Sielen, Alan B. "The Devolution Of The Seas." Foreign Affairs 92.6 (2013): 124-132. Academic Search Complete. Web. 29 Apr. 2014.

TED Talk: A Way to Protect Our Oceans

Oceans are the lifeblood of planet Earth and humankind. They flow over nearly three-quarters of our planet, and hold 97% of the planet's water. They produce more than half of the oxygen in the atmosphere, and absorb the most carbon from it.

We must protect 

oceans for generations to come!