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Pollution in the sea comes in many forms: litter and rubbish; oil spills; chemical runoff, etc. There are huge ramifications for marine animals.

  • One of the major problems is that animals such as turtles and sea birds mistake floating plastic for jellyfish. They try to eat them, and these items suffocate the animals. The UN Environment Programme estimates that about one million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals every year are killed by plastic debris, which can include not just plastic bags, but syringes, cigarette lighters and toothbrushes, all of which have been found inside the stomachs of dead seabirds.
  • Another significant problem is that birds and marine animals are often entangled in discarded nets and fishing lines. Naturally, the more they struggle, the tighter they become entangled, until they die a slow and painful death.
  • Some of the rubbish contains toxins that can get into animals' food chain, slowly poisoning them, or even causing sterility so the species cannot reproduce. The same effect can be caused by pollutants and chemical runoff from land. These poisons can also kill off plant life upon which some species rely. As the plant life dies off, so must the animals which are reliant upon that food source.
  • The ocean absorbs a huge amount of our CO2 from the air and atmosphere. Due to the absorption of this high amount of CO2, the oceans have started to become acidic. Shells and other invertebrates' shells are starting to dissolve from the acidity. Without their shells, they die, and it is forseeable that, in the future, coral will cease to exist. With this extinction and death it will effect the entire food chain all the way up to us humans.
  • All these pollutants disrupt the respiration, blood chemistry, skin and salt gland functions of many animals' bodies. Pollution is believed to be the cause of a recent herpes-like disease that is killing many sea turtles - fibropapillomas. The exact cause is unknown, but pollution is believed to be responsible for sudden, unexplained diseases that are decimating certain animal populations.
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