What effect does water pollution have on living things in the ocean?

Question

I needed to know what does water pollution do to the living things in the ocean. Like, how does the pollution effect the ocean..the organisms living inside...and the surroundings?
Thank you very much for your help!

Answer 1

Water pollution is one of the most serious environmental problems we, as a planet, face today. It occurs when substances such as human and other animal wastes, toxic chemicals, metals, and oils contaminate water. This contamination can affect rain, rivers, lakes, oceans, and the water beneath the surface of the earth, ground water (Lanz.)

Effects

Human illness. Water polluted with human and animal wastes can spread typhoid fever, cholera, dysentery, and other diseases. About 80 percent of the U.S. community water supplies are disinfected with chlorine to kill disease-causing germs. However, disinfection does not remove harmful chemical compounds, such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB's) and chloroform, or harmful metals, such as arsenic, lead, and mercury. The careless release of such toxic wastes, primarily into waste dumps, threatens ground water supplies. PCB's, chloroform, and pesticides have been found in some municipal drinking water. Scientists are concerned that drinking even small quantities of these substances over many years may have harmful effects (Batmanghelidj.)

Reduced recreational use. Pollution prevents people from enjoying some bodies of water for recreation. For example, odours and floating debris make boating and swimming unpleasant, and the risk of disease makes polluted water unsafe. Oil spilled from ships or offshore wells may float to shore. It can kill water birds, shellfish, and other wildlife. Water pollution also affects commercial and sport fishing. Fish can be killed by oil or by a lack of oxygen in the water, or they may die because of a reduction in the quantity and quality of their food supply. Industrial wastes, particularly PCB's, also harm fish (Gunning.)

Disruption of Natural Processes.

Various natural processes that occur in water turn wastes into useful or harmless substances. These processes use oxygen that is dissolved in the water. Water pollution upsets these processes, mainly by robbing the water of oxygen (Eliav.)

Mineralization is a natural process by which aerobic (oxygen-using) bacteria break down organic wastes into simpler substances. Some of these substances, such as phosphates and nitrates, are nutrients for plants. Normal quantities of these nutrients help support normal quantities of life in the water. When there are too many nutrients, however, a body of water may suffer from a process called eutrophication. The added nutrients may come from fertilizers draining off farmland or from detergents and other substances in sewage. An excess of nutrients causes the growth of higher-than-normal numbers of plants, such as pondweeds and duckweeds, plant like organisms called algae, fish and other animals, and bacteria. As more grow, more also die and decay (Weiss.)

Because the decay process uses oxygen, the additional decay uses up more of the oxygen in the water. Thus, less oxygen becomes available to support living things in the water (Weiss.)

Some types of game fish—such as salmon, trout, and whitefish—cannot live in water with reduced oxygen. Fish that need less oxygen, such as carp and catfish, will replace them. If all the oxygen in a body of water were to be used up, most forms of life in the water would die (Weiss.)

Thermal pollution can also reduce the amount of oxygen dissolved in water. In addition, the warmer-than-normal water can kill some kinds of plants and fish (Weiss.)

Answer 2

It can destroy. Pesticides caused reduced egg viability, reducing the numbers of many ocean animals. It causes tumors, dead areas due to the reduction eg: oxygen in the water. Plastic will kill. Many animals have been caught in plastic nets, the rings from different things we drink (six or multipacks). Turtles have been found dead, strangled in them. Plastic sacks in the water resemble jellyfish, a species that many ocean inhabitants eat. The plastic will kill them if eaten. Toxic waste is just that...toxic. It kills, either immediately or through causing cancerous growths that finally kill. Oil spills suffocate and block the sun light from organisms that need it. It coats the fur, feathers and other outsides tha are needed to keep animals afloat and their ability to hunt. If ingested. it clogs things up enough to kill. The coating will also kill humans if caught in it..our bodies cannot breathe with the skin completely covered. Yes, we can breathe if the lungs are not coated. but out skin also breathes and eliminates waste products. Coating the body stops that process. If you have not seen pictures of this, look up the results of the Exxon oil spill. Even the rocks are coated, and the land's ability to nourish living things is stopped.

Answer 3

don't forget eutrophication due to the increased mineral/ nutrients content in the water! (:

This allows too much algae to bloom and when they die, aerobic bacteria (the sapotrophs) consume the decaying material. Usually there is A LOT of bacteria and they use up most of the oxygen dissolved in the water, causing suffocation of the other aquatic organisms.