18 Pollution Facts About the Ocean

Pollution facts about the ocean make us realize the impact of our ferocious use of environmentally poisonous products and their impact on the largest ecosystem in the world.

For instance, without knowing cold hard facts, there’s a very slim chance that we’ll ever get over our plastic addiction.

So, how do we force pollutants into the oceans?!

Sometimes, we accidentally spill them, or unconsciously, wash them through the drains. Most of the time, we deliberately dump them (176 billion pounds of plastic per year).

So, let’s have a look at 18 pollution facts about the ocean to understand where we are going with our day-to-day detrimental practices.

If you want to make a difference, then head over to ‘15 Sustainable Living Ideas to Incorporate in Daily Life‘ to introduce environmental consciousness in your daily life.

1. Oil Spills Aren’t the Biggest Source of Ocean Oil Pollution

There’s always an uproar whenever an unfortunate oil spill accident occurs. However, these oil spills only account for 12% of the oil present in the oceans. The bigger culprit is the oil runoff from our roads, rivers, and drainpipes, which account for three times as much oil as that of oil spills.

2. Nuclear Blast Tests

Nuclear blasts and tests severely impact marine life as radioactivity is as harmful to them as it is to us, humans. Between 1950 and 1998, over 100 nuclear tests took place in the oceans.

After one such explosion, which took place on March 1, 1954, around Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean, Simothsonian scientists found that around 2 kilometers (more than 1.2 miles) of the area was completed obliterated. These effects are then dispersed over a wide area through the water current.

3. Does Plastic Outnumber Fish?

Not yet, but soon!

By 2050, it is estimated that the plastic in the oceans will outweigh the fish.

4. Top Countries Polluting the Ocean

The top countries polluting the ocean are given in the following table:

5. 5 Gyres Fuelling Garbage Patches

We have thrown so much garbage into the ocean that it has formed massive garbage patches. The trash present inside is termed marine debris and the patches are formed by rotating ocean currents called “gyres”. There are 5 of them:

• North Atlantic Gyre
• South Atlantic Gyre
• North Pacific Gyre
• South Pacific Gyre
• Indian Ocean Gyre

The largest garbage patch is called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. It has around 3.6 trillion pieces of plastic and is spread over an area double the size of Texas.

In the past few years, two other such garbage patches have been found in the South Pacific Ocean and the North Atlantic.

6. Microplastics – The Hidden Threat

Plastic is a threat from the day it’s made to centuries to even after it has dissolved in the ocean.

When we dump plastic into the ocean, it breaks down over a long period of time through ocean currents, wave action, and sun exposure into microplastics.

These plastics and microplastics keep floating over the surface of the water for around 400 years for most plastics before they completely dissolve, and when they do, they release chemicals into the ocean, which contaminates the water.

In addition to this, a specific form of plastic, Low-Density Polyethylene (LDPE), which is used in numerous common plastic items such as plastic bags, plastic bottles, and plastic food containers, releases methane and ethylene, two toxic GHGs, while breaking down into microplastics through exposure to the sun, contributing to climate change.

7. Fast Fashion and Plastic

Do you know how many synthetic microfibers enter the water stream with a single laundry load?

On average, 700,000 synthetic microfibers enter the waterways with a single laundry load.

Given that synthetic microfibres aren’t natural, and are made of plastic, they don’t break down like wool and cotton. As a result, they either linger in the water or wash up on the beaches.

To learn more about the atrocities of fashion on the environment, head over to ‘Sustainable Fashion: A Complete Guide‘.

Currently, 85% of all beach trash is synthetic microfibres.

8. Ocean Trash Settles at the Bottom

With land pollution, there is a slim possibility that we can clean it, however, this isn’t possible with ocean pollution.

70% of the oceans’ garbage sinks to the bottom, i.e., the seafloor, which means, no matter how much we try, it’s unlikely that we’ll be able to clean it.

9. Yearly Plastic Pollution in the Ocean

We dump eight million metric tons or 176 billion pounds of plastic each year into the oceans. This is around 57,000 blue whales per year, and given that the blue whale is the largest animal to ever grace Earth, that’s quite a lot! Head over to ‘10 Facts about Blue Whale – The Largest Animal on Earth‘ to find out more about them.

10. Nutrients Causing Dead Zones

The continuous inflow of agriculture runoff containing high quantities of minerals and nutrient, such as nitrogen, cause eutrophication and create dead zones.

Eutrophication is the process of the deposition of minerals and nutrients, specifically nitrogen and phosphorus, into either a complete or partial water body, leading to algal bloom. This growth of algae creates a layer over the surface of the water, hindering the supply of oxygen, and resulting in the lowering of the dissolved oxygen in the water body. This reduction in oxygen levels suffocates marine life, causing ecological degradation.

The dead zones or the regions with low dissolved oxygen are termed hypoxic zones.

11. Hypoxic Zones

There are 415 dead zones or hypoxic zones around the world.

This number was 10 in 1960, but in mere 50 years, it has dramatically gone up due to the addition of artificial fertilizers in agriculture, and the resulting runoff into the oceans.

The majority of the dead or hypoxic zones are in the following areas:

• Along the eastern coast of the United States
• Baltic States’ coastlines
• Japan
• Korean Peninsula.

The largest dead zone or hypoxic zone in the world is in the Arabian Sea. It covers almost the entire Gulf of Oman, which has an area of around 63,700 square miles or 165,000 square kilometers.

The second largest dead or hypoxic zone is in the Gulf of Mexico and covers an area of about 6,000 square miles or 15,500 square kilometers.

12. Loss of Mussel Mass

Greenhouse gas emissions and global warming increase the ocean’s surface temperature, leading to ocean acidification.

This has an impact on bivalves, i.e., marine and freshwater molluscs with laterally compressed bodies enclosed in shells. Common examples include mussels, clams, and oysters.

Ocean acidification reduces bivalves’ capability to form shells, which results in a reduction in their likelihood of survival. This negatively impacts the food chain and does damage to the multi-billion dollar shellfish industry.

13. Noise Pollution and Marine Life

Ocean pollution isn’t just about the trash that we are dumping, it’s way more, with one essential aspect being the racket created by us, AKA, noise pollution.

With the increased activity of the industries, the armed forces, and ships, the noise in the oceans is ever increasing. This causes cellular damage to a wide variety of invertebrates, such as jellyfish and anemones. This results in a modification in the food chain of marine life.

Similarly, the increased noise hinders communication between whales, leading to a reduction in their reproduction, and increased susceptibility to danger to their young.

14. Fishing and Ocean Pollution

Fishing gear is a major contributor to ocean pollution and makes up 46% of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

Fishing gear is around 10% of all the plastic present in the oceans. Every year, between 500,000 to a million tons of fishing equipment are thrown away or lost in the ocean.

15. Ocean Pollution and Sea Birds

Every year, ocean pollution kills more than one million sea birds.

This is because many of them pick up and feed on plastic trash assuming it to be fish and other marine creatures. Some of them even bring them back into their nests and feed them to their young.

Flesh-footed shearwaters are the most affected seabirds by plastic trash. They are found on the island of Lord Howe, which is 600 kilometers off the eastern coast of Australia.

Their nests are decorated with bright-colored plastic, which they assume to be leaves. They also feed the floating plastic to their young, which either kills them or regurgitates a pellet of indigestible material.

16. Plastic per Square Mile of Ocean

Studies show that every square mile of ocean has approximately 46,000 pieces of plastic floating in it.

Furthermore, the amount of plastic present in the ocean (five trillion pieces) is enough to circle the planet over 400 times.

17. Fish Eat Plastic Thinking Its Food

Swedish researchers have found that young fish become addicted to eating plastic just as teens get hooked to fast food. They start preferring polystyrene over natural foods.

Some fish mistake small plastic trash for fish eggs. Similarly, turtles try and eat plastic bags, assuming they are jellyfish.

18. Plastic per Minute

Every minute, approximately a truckload of plastic enters the oceans.

We hope you would be as baffled and saddened by these plastic pollution facts about the ocean as we are. Let us know if you have any other such stats in mind in the comments below. If you want to make a positive difference then head over to our post ‘Plastic Pollution | 12 Ways on How to Stop Using Plastic‘ to learn ways about how to stop using plastic. Let’s change our practices before it’s too late!