Ocean Pollution Pictures

Any toxic materials that are put into rivers and bodies of water can flow eventually to the oceans. Run-off from drains and areas adjacent to the ocean is also a severe problem, bringing all kinds of materials into the sea. Toxic pollutants in the ocean have considerable impacts on plants and animals. Heavy metal poisoning from elements such as lead and mercury, caused by industry, builds up in the tissues of top predators such as whales and sharks, causing birth defects and nervous system damage. Sewage can cause massive nutrient loading in the oceans, which leads to algal blooms, effectively decreasing the amount of dissolved oxygen in the water and many organisms die from lack of oxygen. Sewage also introduces parasites and bacteria, which can cause beach and shellfish harvesting closures.  Marine garbage includes fishing nets, plastics, party balloons, beach toys, general household garbage. Animals eat this garbage and it strangles them or blocks their digestive system causing starvation. Entanglement can also constrict growth and circulation, causing eventual slow death, or trap marine animals within large debris, leading to drowning, starvation or attack by predators. Even if just attached, it slows the animals’ ability to move through the water, and animals starve due to their inability to catch prey.

Always pick up your trash when you leave the beach.

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Picture of Greenpeace ship Esperanza at dock in Tromso, Arctic Norway during oil tanker protest cruise in Barents Sea, North East Atlantic

Picture #: 097142

Image of leatherback sea turtle hatchling, Dermochelys coriacea, climbing through rubbish or marine debris to sea, Dominica, West Indies, Caribbean, Atlantic

Picture #: 095126

Stock photo of trash as it erodes from an abandoned dumpsite into the Elkhorn Slew estuary, Monterey, California.

Picture #: 067460

Photo of Northern elephant seal, Mirounga angustirostris, with debris on beach, Big Sur, California, Pacific Ocean

Picture #: 018760

Picture of a diver during a reef cleanup operation picking up more rubbish whilst carrying a net bag full of already collected rubbish, D'lagoon, North point, Pulau Perhentian kecil, South China sea, Peninsular Malaysia, Asia

Picture #: 096925

Image of Southern sea otter, Enhydra lutris nereis, pup playing with a soda can, Monterey, California, Pacific Ocean, National Marine Sanctuary, endangered species

Picture #: 098267

Stock photo of drill site, part of Prudhoe Bay's industrial oil fields and sprawling development, Beaufort sea, Arctic coast of Alaska

Picture #: 100751

Picture of California sea lion, Zalophus californianus, with wound caused by plastic neck ring, Monterey, California, Pacific Ocean

Picture #: 094210

Picture of California sea lions, Zalophus californianus, drowned in a gill net, Los Coronados Islands, Baja California, Mexico, Pacific

Picture #: 011647

Image of oil spilling from pipes and polluting a lake near Niznevartovsk, Khanty Mansiysk, West Siberia, Russia

Picture #: 068834

Stock photo of burning trash at the dump on Barter island, 1002 area of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska

Picture #: 100878

Photo of ghost or abandoned fishing net, entangled in coral reef, Kua Bay, Kona, Hawaii

Picture #: 003888

Picture of trash on beach. After winter storms, raw sewage and every possible type of floating trash from modern urban life are flushed down the Tijuana River from Mexico and ultimately end up in the ocean south of Imperial Beach, San Diego, California.

Picture #: 067476

Image of a California sea lion, Zalophus californianus, with fishing net around neck, Monterey Bay, California, Pacific Ocean

Picture #: 091186

Stock photo of great blue heron, Ardea herodias, with neck caught in plastic six pack ring

Picture #: 076888

Photo of coal fired power station at Anadyr, Chukotka, Siberia, Russia.

Picture #: 068822

Picture of coastal erosion washing away sand bags used by a former government dew line site to keep a dump site with possible toxic PCBs from washing away, Barter Island, 1002 coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska

Picture #: 100872

Image of marine debris from around the world washed up on these beaches at South Point due to strong wind and current, Big Island, Hawaii

Picture #: 020917

Stock photo of a Hawaiian spinner dolphin, Stenella longirostris, playing with plastic bag, Kona, Hawaii, Pacific Ocean

Picture #: 012263

Photo of Troll A Oil and Gas production platform, the largest man made structure ever to move across the face of the earth. North sea, Atlantic, Norway

Picture #: 097159

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