Pollution of our Oceans
"Increasingly, the world around us looks as if we hated it."
-Alan Watts
Welcome to our section on ocean pollution! Ocean pollution not only makes the world ugly, but it affects the wildlife and us. So take a look around and learn about how you can make a difference to make our oceans cleaner. Students can find awesome web sites, an interactive Power Point about oceans, games, and web quests-have fun! Teachers can find lesson plans, a book list, and great sites to use in the classroom.
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Causes of pollution in our oceans:
Oil Pollution:
- 363 million gallons per year are released into our oceans when people change the oil in their cars
- Routine maintenance from ships releases 137 million gallons of oil per year
- Oil spill are responsible for 37 million gallons of oil in our oceans
Toxins:
- Toxins are released from agriculture and industry, and travel through are rivers into our oceans.
- over 7,700 square miles of the Gulf of Mexico is considered a "dead zone" due to the build up of toxins
- Only bacteria can survive there
Sewage
- Countries surrounding the Mediterranean release 30 to 50 million tons of untreated or partially treated sewage yearly
- 50 to 60 million tons of wastes flows into the Yellow Sea daily
- Calcutta and Mumbai India are responsible for a total of 765 million tons of raw sewage released yearly
Thermal pollution
- This caused by industries pumping warm water out of their factories into nearby rivers and streams
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Air Pollution
- 33% of ocean pollution is from toxins released from air pollution
Runoff
- Over 44% of toxins come from stream and river runoff
Plastics
- Over 46, 000 pieces of plastic can be found on each square mile of ocean
- This plastic comes from shopping bags, pop bottles and other "trash" that we just throw away
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Last Updated by Jennifer on
August 6, 2007
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