I do what I can to recycle but to be honest, haven't really given much thought to how pollution in the ocean, specifically plastic pollution can cause problems for the ocean, the sea creatures and us. In Hawai'i we have been very aware of the big pile of debris from Japan after the earthquake and tsunami last year and the danger that huge pile of debris poses to humans and sea creatures alike. So many people I know are "really concerned" about this huge pile of debris and how to take care of it/get rid of it. What about the every day pollution going into our oceans beyond the debris from the Japan tsunami and earthquake? A lot of people don't think about it.
I think that a lot of people don't realize how vital the ocean's health is to our ecosystem and way of living. The balance of the oceans is vital to our livelihood. When the balance in the ocean is thrown off, we will see the fallout from it. With the overfishing and shark finning and dolphin and whale slaughtering going on, it's no wonder so many fish and other sea creatures are dying and beaching themselves. I'll get into that topic in another post on another day because I could go on and on without end regarding those topics. Here's a helpful and informative resource about how the ocean ecosystem affects our climate [click the link].
Someone wrote me and sent me this graphic (click the sliver of a picture to the left to see it expanded) about plastics pollution in our ocean and how the garbage we allow to go into the ocean ends up being consumed by us in the end. It's very scary. Consider the BPA that is found in a lot of plastic products that scientists are now discovering may cause cancer or increase in the chances of cancer. So what happens if we pollute the oceans with plastic? The fish eat it and bigger fish eat it and we eat the bigger fish... Very scary thought. The graphic below is interesting, full of information and true. I really liked how they incorporated the facts with something colorful and interesting.
We all have to do our part to keep our world clean, especially our oceans!!
