The ocean sustains us with the basic elements of life. It produces half of the oxygen in the air we breathe, and it is an essential part of the water cycle, helping to provide the water we drink.
The world’s beaches, the frontier of this essential resource, support ocean health. They provide habitat and nesting grounds for important ocean wildlife like sea turtles and sea birds, and they attract vacationers from around the world, helping to sustain economy.
Whether we live on a beach or hundreds of miles from the coastline, we all have a profound stake in an ocean that is healthy and abundant.
Ocean trash is one of the most serious pollution problems. Much more than an eyesore, trash in the water and on the shore affects the health of people, wildlife and economies. For example, trash in the water will injures swimmers and beach goers, harms wildlife that eats it or get trapped in its mess,drives away tourists—and their wallets and ensnares boat propellers, a costly navigation hazard.
Beach-clean-ups is considered to be very important because throwing trash into beaches, and the oceans can be better known as pollution. When trash gets into the oceans, animals can easily mistake that trash for a certain food source.
An example of this is with the sea turtles. When a turtle sees a plastic bag floating around in the ocean, the animal might mistake it for a jellyfish before swallowing it as a whole. The plastic bag may prevent the turtle from eating, thus, cause it to slowly starve itself to death.
Trash-induced marine pollution has been a subject of a number of wildlife documentaries for years; each and every one of these segments which talked about marine pollution, has brought a huge light among the public to start taking action to help make their beaches healthier and safe for all marine wildlife. While many coastal towns have taken action to require city dumps to collect trash from beaches and relocate to dumps that are away from beaches, the pollution sadly, still continues.
By taking part in these beach clean-ups, you are leaving a great example to others on how to reduce marine debris in the seas and allowing wildlife to remain safe from pollution. scientists estimate that about eight million tonnes of plastic debris such as food packaging and plastic bottles are being washed into the oceans each year, and the cumulative quantity of waste will result in a tenfold increase by 2020.
The waste is not only unsightly but crucially causes harm to marine wildlife. And, since plastic doesn’t biodegrade but just breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces, tiny plastic “micro particles” are entering our food chain. In addition, new research is finding that plastic often sinks and mixes into the seabed or is absorbed by sea ice.
The good news is that we can prevent trashed beaches and debris-filled water. Bond Safari has a vision of trash free seas, and they’ve already started with the process of cleaning.
