Ocean pollution essays

Ocean pollution essays Oil pollution is a very large threat to the ocean and it's inhabitants. Roughly about 706 millions of oil pollute ocean waters worldwide each year. Some of the main cause's include oil spills, oil in runoff, air pollution, and even natural seeping of oil into the ocean. In 1987, more than 3.5 million tons of oil were released into the oceans around the world. Out of that only 28 percent of the spillage was accidental; the remaining 72 percent was deliberate, illegal actions. A lot of the illegal pollution is caused by cleaning of oil tanks at sea. After they are cleaned the tankers then dump the polluted water, mixed with all the oil residue, back into the ocean. Blowouts occurring at oil well heads release huge amounts of oil and gas into the ocean. The drilling vessel IXTOTI released more than 400,000 tons of oil into the Gulf of mexico over a period of 9 months after its well exploded in 1978. The most publicized of the oil spills are those caused by tanker accidents. There have been hundreds of accidents involving the spilling of million of tons of oil. Big oil spills, no matter what way they occur, reflect on the oil industry badly. The clean-up cost alone is enormous, and the amount of damages can be into the millions of dollars. Despite the clean-up efforts, once there is an oil spill, it cannot be prevented from causing major damage to wildlife and the environment. All the migrating seabirds like guillemots, puffins, and razorbills are at risk from oil pollution. During migration, they look for calm water where they rest and fish. Oil ©covered seas look calm to birds, and they land on the water by thousands, only to be trapped in the oil and die of starvation. The birds that don't become trapped usually die as well from trying to remove the oil from their feathers, the birds ingest the oil and that usually kills them in a few days. The oil that washes to shore on the beaches where seals and sea lion...