Ocean Pollution facts

While investigating facts about Ocean Pollution Statistics and Ocean Pollution Articles, I found out little known, but curios details like:

The Asian brown cloud, a layer of air pollution that appears over South Asia and the Indian Ocean every year between January and March when there is no rain to wash pollutants from the air. Nearly two million people die each year, in India alone, from conditions related to the brown cloud.

how ocean pollution affects humans?

60% of Plastic Pollution in the Oceans comes from 5 nations (China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam)

What is plastic pollution in the ocean?

In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across answering what can we do to stop ocean pollution. Here are 49 of the best facts about Ocean Pollution Causes and Ocean Pollution Solutions I managed to collect.

what ocean pollution causes?

Plastic waste can be converted into fuel - gasoline, diesel or kerosine - needing only 1 kw of electricity make 1 liter of oil. This means all the plastic choking sea life, polluting the ocean, and filling landfills could have been used to power cars and machinery.
Only 10 rivers contribute to 95% of the pollution of the world’s oceans
Much of the waste that is dumped into the ocean will wash up on the coast polluting everything it comes into contact with, including beaches, animals, and sea life.
When little sea creatures consume toxins in their food, they absorb those chemicals. They are then consumed by larger marine animals. The amount of toxins is concentrated in the larger marine animals. This continues up the food chain until the largest sea creatures have such extreme contamination, often millions of times higher than the water itself.
Radioactive waste and industrial waste such as acids and toxins often reach the ocean adding to the pollution and substantial loss of marine life.
Some of the ocean pollution that we can see includes floating plastic, oil spills, and trash.
There is a large amount of marine debris and pollution in the Pacific Ocean, all the result of people.
Discarded fishing nets kill approximately 300,000 dolphins and porpoises every year. The dolphins and porpoises get tangled in the nets and die.
There is an ocean garbage site off the coast of California twice as large as the state of Texas. It is called the North Pacific Gyre and is the largest garbage site in the ocean in the world.
Weather satellites can record a variety of weather and other phenomena including clouds, cloud systems, fire, pollution effects, dust storms, sand storms, snow, ice caps, ocean currents, volcanic ash in the air, smoke and much more.

ocean pollution facts — What does ocean pollution affect?

Ocean Pollution data charts

For your convenience take a look at Ocean Pollution figures with stats and charts presented as graphic.

ocean pollution fact data chart about Input of plastic to the oceans from the top 20 polluting riv — Input of plastic to the oceans from the top 20 polluting rivers across the world

ocean pollution fact data chart about 95% of plastic polluting the world's oceans come from these — 95% of plastic polluting the world's oceans come from these 10 rivers

Why ocean pollution is a problem?

You can easily fact check why ocean pollution is good by examining the linked well-known sources.

Although the Arctic Ocean is covered by an ice cap, the ice cap is decreasing in size due to global warming and pollution. If it continues to melt it is possible that eventually there will be no more ice in the Arctic Ocean. This may happen by the year 2040.

The plastic debris that reaches the ocean is capable of absorbing the toxic chemicals polluting the water. The sea life that consumes the plastic is then poisoned. Because plastic never completely disappears and breaks down into smaller pieces, it is often seen as food to marine life.

The Indian Ocean is subjected to a variety of pollution sources including oil and ship pollution, specifically in the Red Sea, Persian Gulf, and the Arabian Sea.

Every year, Puget Sound ocean inlet, suffers an oil spill equal to more than half the Exxon Valdez oil spill accident. It just happens drop by drop from stormwater runoff pollution.

Plastic is one of the most common ocean pollutants. It does not break down rapidly and marine life often eats it after mistaking it for food.

When did ocean pollution start?

It is estimated that every square mile of ocean has more than 45,000 pieces of plastic floating in it.

How ocean pollution affects marine life?

Although oil spills pollute the ocean, they only account for approximately 12% of the oil polluting the ocean. The rest reaches the oceans from land, through drainage.

Pollution of the ocean or oil spills negatively affects survival of the seals.

Ocean pollution kills more than one million sea birds each year.

When synthetic jackets made of microfibers are washed, on average 1.7 grams of microfibers are released, and up to 40% of them enter into rivers, lakes, and oceans to contribute to the overall plastic pollution.

Toxic metals reach the ocean and contribute to ocean pollution, destroying reproduction, behavior, growth and the biochemistry of the ocean's marine life.

Ocean pollution infographics

Beautiful visual representation of Ocean Pollution numbers and stats to get perspecive of the whole story.

ocean pollution fact infographic about Updated Resolution: Visualization on the plastic pollution p — Updated Resolution: Visualization on the plastic pollution problem of our oceans

ocean pollution fact infographic about China is by FAR biggest polluter of our oceans — China is by FAR biggest polluter of our oceans

When did ocean pollution become a problem?

A variety of species in the Atlantic Ocean are considered endangered including whales, manatee, seals, sea lions, dolphins, albatrosses, auks, petrels, turtles, due to pollution and overfishing, as well as accidental net fishing.

There are dead zones in the oceans that have been created by pollution making life in those zones impossible for marine or plant life.

Scientists warn, 99% of seabirds will have swallowed plastic by 2050.Some studies have shown plastic pollution can amount to 580,000 pieces of plastic per square km in the ocean."With the plastics problem, you're really just asking people to dispose of plastics more responsibly."

The ocean's oxygen content is depleted by the runoff of fertilizer that causes an increase of algae growth.

How ocean pollution affects animals?

Each day thousands of tons of trash and waste are dumped into the oceans of the world.

The Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn, NY: one of the most polluted waterways in the US where, in 2007, a baby mink whale swam into the canal from the ocean and died

Oceans can be emptied by 2048 by overfishing, pollution and rising acidification.

Pollution in the air contributes to 33% of the toxic contaminants that land in the ocean. 44% of the contaminants that land in the ocean are from rivers and streams.

Due to modern man and the oil industry the Niger River grows more polluted as it flows along its route to the Atlantic Ocean.

Climate change, overfishing, oil spills, pollution, and natural disasters can negatively affect the salt water ecosystems in the oceans.

Plastic microbeads commonly found in toothpaste and face wash products make up 25% of all plastic pollution in the worlds oceans.

Our oceans are being polluted with over 2.3 billions pieces of plastic. Pushed by winds, tides and currents, plastic particles form with other debris into large swirling glutinous accumulation zones. There are a least 5 garbage patches drifting in the oceans north and south of the Equator.

Due to ocean currents, pollution such as plastics, chemical sludge, and other debris becomes concentrated in the middle of the ocean in gyres. Estimates for the largest of these are as high as 15,000,000 sq. kilometers, almost twice the size of the continental United States.

The Fukushima Daichi nuclear disaster was many times worse than Chernobyl and is still causing ongoing radioactive pollution into the Pacific Ocean

Fleece contributes to ocean pollution. Every time we wash our fleece clothes, we release plastic microfibers into the water system, which eventually makes it to the oceans, which eventually makes into the animals, and in some of our bodies.

Thanks to Plastic Bank, removing plastic pollution from our oceans and beaches is profitable! That's how you get something done, ladies and gentlemen. Now all we have to do is spread the word and get everyone involved (especially poor countries).

About Ocean Acidification. The pollution of today's society wont effect the ocean until a couple of decades from now. When it does, most shellfish will be doomed unless something is done to prevent it.

Due to ocean currents, Henderson Island in the South Pacific is the world's most polluted beach. Its 14-square miles of sand are covered with 38,000 lbs of plastic.

This is our collection of basic interesting facts about Ocean Pollution. The fact lists are intended for research in school, for college students or just to feed your brain with new realities. Possible use cases are in quizzes, differences, riddles, homework facts legend, cover facts, and many more. Whatever your case, learn the truth of the matter why is Ocean Pollution so important!