Ocean Pollution Prevention 2018

Our oceans consist of 75 percent of the Earth and today will help to bring awareness for how human actions impact the oceans. This day also reminds us the importance of marine conservation to keep a healthy habitat for marine life.

The ocean is a critical part of the biosphere and provides the biggest source of oxygen we breathe. We also need to focus on better sourcing methods for food and medicine from the ocean, to prevent pollution through retrieval.

This year the focus of World Oceans Day will be to inform on the negative impact of plastic pollution in the oceans, with eight million tons of plastic end up in the oceans annually.
The plastic pollution kills one million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals per year.

Humans contribute to 80 percent of the pollution found in the ocean, with plastic causing $8 billion in damage to marine ecosystems. The plastic pollution is such a big issue because most plastic will breakdown into smaller pieces, microplastics, that marine life commonly mistake as food.

The result is that humans are consuming plastic when they eat fish, since the plastic doesn’t breakdown after a fish eats it. Many marine species that are endangered are due to over-fishing, pollution consumption, or be trapped in some plastic pollution.

In London to mark the occasion they created an art installation of all thrown away plastic waste called ‘Wave of Waste’ by artist Andy Billett in collaboration with Corona. The creators of the art piece offer people to add their trash to the sculpture.

World Oceans Day has many thinking of reforming plastic production policies, with some even banning plastic. This is the case with Chile who is the first country in South American to ban businesses from using plastic bags, with approval from congress last week. The ban will go into effect in about a month and businesses will have two years to comply.

The celebration of the ocean is needed as is the attention to the plastic pollution crisis our oceans face today. With most plastics taking hundreds of years to decompose, it is important to stop further production of plastic and look to alternatives in post-consumer recyclable materials.