What Creatures Are Affected by Toxic Waste in the Ocean?

Scientists classify life into a number of kingdoms, each of which has representatives in the world oceans. Sensitive ecosystems have harbored precious life for millions of years. Ironically, in a geologic second, people have changed that by introducing toxins into what were pristine environments.

Pollution enters the world oceans via petroleum spills, industrial waste dumping and agricultural run-off. Heavy metals, nutrient pollution, toxic chemicals and petroleum disperse throughout the world. All life lives within our waste.

Petroleum and Wastewater Spills

• Ocean plants, fish and mammals are victims of petroleum spills. Toxic petroleum chemicals leave a wake of destruction. Bleached corals, maimed seagulls, starving seals, petroleum-coated turtles, choking penguins and rotting shellfish are the aftermaths of oil spills.

  Sewage spills cause massive algal blooms. These organisms (algae) spring to life in massive quantities, feeding on human waste. They are not a natural part of the ecosystem where waste has been freshly dumped. The algae feast until all the sewage is gone, then die. Their decomposition poisons the water and depletes it of all oxygen, creating a dead zone. Fish found in the dead zone are belly-up only.

Base of the Food Chain

• In the world oceans, plankton is the most productive life form. These tiny pelagic plants and animals are the essential primary food source. They stand at the base of the food chain, and hold it up. All life is dependent upon their continued health.

  Plankton comprises the world's largest biomass and consists of tiny phytoplankton (algal plants) and zooplankton (juvenile fish, shellfish and krill). Phytoplankton is responsible for the production of 50 percent of the world's atmospheric oxygen, without which, life, as we know it, could not exist. Recently, there has been a vast decline in the numbers of plankton, attributed to global warming (exacerbated by greenhouse pollution), toxic waste and petroleum spills. Waste products dumped into the oceans include heavy metals and poisons that alter life cycles, disrupt DNA replication and harm cellular health. This in turn promotes sickness and death.

All Life on Earth

• As plankton populations dwindle, so do their dependent animals, as lack of food works its way up the food chain. Often, what food is available are sickly survivors of mercury poisoning. Heavy metals (constituents of industrial waste) interrupt reproductive cycles of marine organisms, leading to poor health. When consumed, they move against their concentrate gradients and become increasingly more toxic with each progressive step in the food chain. Ultimately, people are at risk for the ingestion of toxins, the repercussions of global warming and the lack of safe food supplies.