Introduction
Pollution is becoming a major global issue and is severely harming the Earth, especially in our oceans. Many sea animals are ingesting the plastics and debris being put into our oceans resulting in many deaths, a big majority are sea turtles. Trash ending up in water harms marine life, which affects entire food chains, including humans. The problem with environmental issues in the ocean isn’t just individual pieces of trash, it includes everything humans are doing to cause problems to ecosystems like fertilizers, chemical, oil spills, and many other factors entering the water. Although eliminating these factors altogether is impossible, we can begin to make a difference by working on ways to save these animals and cutting down the causes that are creating environmental problems.
Pollution Factors
The ocean is a massive body of water, filled with many living species. These sea creatures are exceedingly susceptible to all the pollution entering their ecosystem. People don’t realize how big of an effect one piece of plastic has on sea life. Pollution in oceans contaminates and kills the aquatic plant and animal life. It also has a big effect on coral reefs and places where animals like sea turtles feed. “It is estimated that more than 100 million marine animals are killed each year due to plastic debris in the ocean. More than 80% of this plastic comes from land,” (“Information About Sea Turtles: Threats from Marine Debris,” 1996-2017). Trash at our homes that is not properly disposed of ends up in streets and travels to our beaches. It also comes through drains into streams and rivers. Pollution tends to fly away from landfills on windy days, because it is exposed to environmental factors. As a result, thousands of sea turtles accidentally inhale these plastics because they mistake it for food. Many tend to have trouble distinguishing between floating jellyfish – the main component of their diet – and floating plastic bags. Most of the debris is recognizable: plastic bags, balloons, bottles, degraded buoys, plastic packaging, and food wrappers. Some plastics aren’t so easy to see, so small, in fact, that it is invisible to the naked eye. If sea turtles ingest these particles, they can become sick or even starve. Areas that have increased risks of pollution to the turtle populations include east coasts of the United States, Australia, South Africa, the east Indian Ocean, and Southeast Asia. “Model results can be used to predict the number of turtles globally at risk of debris ingestion. Based on currently available data, initial calculations indicate that up to 52% of turtles may have ingested debris,” (Schuyler, Wilcox, Townsend, 2015, pg. 3). This is a particularly high percentage of our turtles that are being harmed by the debris. If this continues to rise, sea turtles may become extinct, because 6 out of 7 species are already endangered (“Sea Turtle,” 2018).
Fertilizer and Oil Spill Factors
Fertilizers entering the ocean are also major pollutants that will harm the sea life. The drainage of the fertilizers happens from rainfall on farms and lawns traveling down the streets to our shores. This will lead to eutrophication from the extra nutrients entering the water. Eutrophication means “well-nourished,” stating that the water has an increase in nutrients and can decrease the water’s oxygen. This can create many problems for sea animals and cause them to suffocate due to the lack of oxygen. Improper sewage disposal is another factor that may lead to eutrophication. Many people assume that pollutants entering our oceans will be reduced and diffused across our vast ocean, but in reality, it will destroy the oceans natural balance of its system. Marine pollution can have serious impacts on both sea turtles, and the food they eat. A disease called fibropapillomas is now killing many sea turtles. It may be linked to pollution in oceans and shallow coasts. Oil spills, runoff from chemicals, fertilizers, and petroleum all contribute to the water pollution issue. People don’t realize that the toxins released from these pollutants become more concentrated as they break down in water. This results in smaller, more toxic particles becoming food for many sea animals, including sea turtles. Many animals die if they ingest enough chemicals and particles in their water.
Nighttime Lights
Another factor that humans need to take into consideration is the coastal nighttime lights we have placed. This stops sea turtles from nesting because the lights alter the dark shores the sea turtles need to lay their eggs on (Brei, Pérez-Barahona, Strobl, 2016, pg. 97). Although sea turtles are rarely on beaches, the females need them to lay their eggs almost exclusively at night. This is critical for the sea turtle hatchlings, and the lights can confuse the newly hatched sea turtles. The article states that “artificial lighting drastically alters the way in which adults choose their nesting sites, as they generally prefer unlit beaches,” (Brei, Pérez-Barahona, Strobl, 2016, pg. 98). We need to remove artificial lights from our shores because sea turtles will place their eggs in the ocean without nesting when there is a lack of appropriate dark beaches. Photo pollution may also affect the return of adult sea turtles to the ocean after nesting. According to the article, a number of studies on nesting have shown that adult turtles rely on brightness to locate the sea, so this light will alter where they lay their eggs.
Solutions
With the huge variety of threats on marine animals, like debris ingestion and plastic entanglement, we need solutions for change. “Of the 693 different species recorded to have interacted with marine debris (Gall & Thompson, 2015), two of the top six species most heavily impacted by marine debris are sea turtles (GEF 2012), however quantifying these impacts remains a high priority for research in the field of plastic marine pollution as well as for sea turtle conservation (Hamann et al., 2010, Vegter et al., 2014),” (Schuyler, Wilcox, Townsend, 2015, pg. 4). This statistic shows how drastically sea turtle populations are being affected by human’s ignorance of the issues caused by pollution. People need to be informed about local waste disposal to ensure that untreated wastewater isn’t being placed into natural waterways and oceans. Following local codes enforcing fertilizer bans near waterways or using fewer chemical fertilizers is a great way people can prevent eutrophication in our waters. An easier solution would be buying organically produced food and products and would be very beneficially for everyone. People can also reduce oil consumption by choosing to carpool, using public transportation or buying new energy-efficient vehicles. For sea turtles, in particular, we can remove artificial lights from our coastlines as to not disturb the natural process of nesting. A conservation group called The Caribbean Conservation Corporation (CCC), whose efforts are to protect sea turtles in Costa Rica and in the Caribbean. They make electronic tags to put on the turtles and uses satellites to track where they travel. Another conservation tool they used to protect diminishing sea turtle populations is head starting. Head starting is a technique used by conversationalists in which young animals, either captive-bred or from the wild, are kept in captivity until they grow to a larger size before released into the ocean. “For instance, the Cayman Turtle Farm released 16,422 neonates, 14,282 yearlings, and 65 older (19–77 months) green sea turtles during 1980– 2001,” (Brei, Pérez-Barahona, Strobl, 2016, pg. 108). This aids scientists for future understanding of how to protect these amazing sea creatures. Our world needs more groups like these to put some efforts towards saving our planet, and the creatures that live on it.
Conclusion:
Plastic marine debris pollution is rapidly becoming one of the critical environmental concerns facing sea animals in the 21st century. With the result of plastics and debris entering our water systems, we find an increasing number of sea animals being harmed or even killed. This is prevalent for sea turtles who are inhaling pieces of plastic from trash. Other factors like fertilizers, oil spills, and man-made lights on our shores are also affecting marine life. As a society, we need to find more solutions to fix the threats on sea turtles that have come arise because of humans. These are factors that we have caused, therefore, we need to find a solution for them. By informing people of these major problems like pollution, we can work together and aid groups like the Caribbean Conservation Corporation, Ocean Conservancy, and Oceana who dedicate their lives to protecting our oceans. These organizations are a few examples of amazing people who came together to create more solutions for cleaning our water and saving our sea creatures, including sea turtles. If everyone who saw pollution on the ground decided to pick it up, we could clean our earth in a much more effective way than having few groups of people putting all their time and effort to clean the ocean. We need to keep working to make a difference in the rising pollution factors and diminish the concerns on our marine life.