LeAnn Makowe

UWRT 1102
Miss. Morton
19 April, 2016
Argument Essay
Throughout the world as a whole there is a major issue with pollution and how it effects
human and animals life. The most popular thing people think of when they hear the word
pollution is the ozone and pollution in the air. What people do not always think about is the water
pollution and how it is effecting everything as a whole. Pollution in the water effects animals,
plants, and humans. Animals in the wild have no self-defense if their homes and the water they
swim in is polluted with plastic, trash, and even chemicals. This paper will help to show readers
that plastic pollution in the water is from humans and their neglect. It will show how plastic from
humans effects the aquatic life all over the world and how it will eventually start to backfire on
humans as well.
There are many ways in which plastic pollution effects the aquatic life in our world.
When plastic gets into the water it contributes to the leading cause of deaths among aquatic
animals. According the Adimey, entanglement in fishery gear poses the single greatest threat to
many populations of marine mammals in the United States and elsewhere in the world (Adimey
103). This quote means the fishery gear left behind by humans is among the greatest threat to the
aquatic life. There are many reasons scientists think attract the animals to the plastic waste.
Adimey identified those reasons as:
(1) accidental encounters in which the objects or gear are not perceived; (2)
indiscriminate/opportunistic occasions in which the object cannot be distinguished from
an appropriate natural object; or (3) deliberate situations resulting from curiosity,
foraging or investigation of novel object (Adimey 103).
These reasons are the big three reasons why the scientists think the animals come in contact with
plastic waste. The risks of entanglement and ingestion of the plastic pollution in the water creates

a hazardous environment for the aquatic life. Adimey writes, Impacts from entanglement can
include: death or injury including loss of normal swimming ability or mobility, strangulation,
suffocation and reduced growth, fitness or fecundity (Adimey 103). This proves entanglement
alone causes death and animals do not even have to ingest it. Imagine what ingesting plastic does
to an animal. According to Adimey, ingested fishing gear can also affect feeding abilities,
decrease feeding resulting in starvation, and obstruct normal passage of food through the
digestive tract or introduce toxic chemicals into tissue (Adimey 103). Ingesting plastic can do a
variety of harm to an animals and the usual result is death. The plastic in our water is a major
issue and needs to be addressed.
Nicole M Adimey wrote about a scientific study of how fishery gear contributed to the
pollution of our waters in Florida, specifically pertaining to bottlenose dolphins, Florida
manatees, and a variety of Sea Turtles. In her study the fishery gear was divided into four
categories:
(1) hook and line (HL) - entanglement in, or ingestion of, fishing line, fishing hooks,
lures, weights, and/or jigs; (2) trap pot gear (TPG) - entanglement in any part of a trap
pot, mostly typically the buoy line; (3) fishing net (FN) - entanglement in any type or size
of fishing net; and (4) multiple gear any combination of the aforementioned gear
categories (Adimey 104).
The categorizing of the fishing gear helps narrow down to what gear is mostly contributing to
the deaths of these animals. There are also more categories separated for this study for example,
where the external entanglements were located on the animal, and for ingested gear if they were
externally detectable or only detectable during necropsy (Adimey). The categories are to help
better present the data collected but also to show exactly by what and how animals are dying.
Statistical results from Adimeys paper show that from:
1997-2009 a total of 25,138 standings were reported in Florida for all three animal
groups including 2,413 dolphins, 4,962 manatees, and 17,763 sea turtles (9,950

loggerheads, 5,347 green turtles, 1,346 Kemps ridleys, 362 hawksbills, 304 leatherbacks,
3 olive-ridleys and 451 unidentified sea turtles) (Adimey 105).
Those strandings were not all due to fishery gear. According to Adimey, of those 1,582 cases
were identified as fishery gear interactions, including: 132 dolphins, 380 manatees, and 1070 sea
turtles (Adimey 105). With the categories listed above the scientists were able to show which
fishery gear was associated with each animal group. According to Adimey:
Fishery gear interactions for dolphins consisted of 73.5% hook and line, 20.5% trap pot
gear, 3.0% fishing nets, and 3.0% multiple gear. Fishery gear interactions for manatees
consisted of 76.3% hook and line, 21.9% trap pot gear, 1.3% fishing net, and 0.5%
multiple gear. While interactions for sea turtles consisted of 75.2% hook and line, 16.6%
trap pot gear, 6.2% fishing net, and 2.0% multiple gear (Adimey 105).
These statistics are just from one study conducted by a group of scientists. There are many more
trials and studies conducted by various scientists.
Another big issue is how the plastic pollution is getting into the oceans and fresh water
sources. There is a patch of trash in the ocean trapped in certain areas called gyres (Sigler).
There a gyre in the North Pacific Subtropical called The Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch
(NOAA, quoted in Sigler 2). According to Sigler, often misinterpreted as an island of plastic,
the Plastic Ocean Gyre is actually a big nebulous clutter of large and small plastic pieces
extending 100-ft deep (Kostigen, quoted in Sigler 2). This is not the only floating island of
trash there are others that may be even bigger (Sigler). The other trash piles are the South
Pacific Subtropical Gyre, the North and South Atlantic Subtropical Gyre, and the Indian Ocean
Subtropical Gyre (NOAA, quoted in Sigler 2).
The trash in the ocean is getting there in a variety ways, This information is broken down
statistically according to Sigler as, eighty percent of the plastics circulating the oceans are
believed to come from shorelines, 10% from fishing gear, and 10% from boats and ships (Sigler
2). There are records that state approximately, 10,000 shipping containers plummet off cargo

ships into the ocean each year (Sigler 2). This is an alarming number of shipping containers
with substances in them being put into our ocean. The neglect of humans and their waste
products is harming our planet and the waters we drink and yet nothing seems to being done
about this problem. According to Sigler, since the gyres are found in international waters, no
country is taking responsibility for cleaning up the ocean (Sigler 5). The ocean is not the only
body of water to be suffering from the plastic pollution in the world. Our Great Lakes are also
being polluted, possibly even more than the ocean (Sigler).
The Great Lakes are an important part of human life, they give us food and water to
survive. The big problem arising is scientists realizing plastic pollution in the fresh water system
and wanting to do more research. According to Sigler, in the summer of 2012, 5 Gyres Institute
sailed through Lake Erie, Lake Superior, and Lake Ontario to conduct the first open-water survey
of the lakes (Sigler 5). During that survey that found that Lake Erie consistently had the most
concentrated levels of microplastics compared to all the other Great Lakes surveyed (Sigler 5).
The even more disturbing news that was found in their research on the Great Lakes is according
to Sigler, Lake Erie also revealed that the quantity of plastics was three times greater than the
amount found in any samples taken from the oceans (Sigler 5). This means a smaller body of
fresh water is more polluted with plastic than the ocean that covers 71% of the world.
Microplastics are pieces of plastic that could have been broken down at one point or can be from
facial cleaners and personal care products (Sigler 5). They are usually small and can be less than
0.5 mm wide (Sigler 5). These microplastics
Attract harmful pollutants such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and
dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT). PCBs have been shown to cause cancers in
marine animals or to have negative effects on the immune system, nervous system,
endocrine system, and reproductive system (Sigler 5).

There are serious side effects of the plastic being in our water ways. The food we eat can have
multiples of these problems and it could eventually harm humans. According to Sigler, there is
speculation that these minute plastics can make their way up the food chain, causing similar
health threats to humans (Sigler 5). Humans could have the same health problems with their
immune system, nervous system, endocrine system, and their reproductive system all because of
their neglect with trash and plastic pollution.
There are many ways to say plastic in our ocean and fresh water sources are hurting the
aquatic life and eventually humans. There are however not as many solutions to fixing this huge
problem, but there are ways of fixing or beginning to fix the problem that humans have caused.
There is knowledge known about ocean currents and how things can travel in the water. With all
the trash in the ocean there is no possible way they can predict where all the plastic will end up.
To try to find what areas are most vulnerable to plastic waste a Marine Debris Tracker was
created. According to Sigler, the Marine Debris Tracker is a citizen science project that allows
community members to log marine debris found along coastlines and waterways using their
smartphones, which is then recorded using GPS(Sigler 5). This tracker is among a few other
ways of tracking pollution like through radio-frequency identification tags, cellular transmitters,
drones to collect plastic debris, and turning plastics back into oil (Sigler). There are various
community groups and programs that are trying to find a solution to remove the plastic waste
from water sources. An industrial design student named Elie Ahovi created a plastic- eating
drone that would tow a trapping net which would siphon the plastic garbage from our oceans
waters (Sigler 6). The drone was designed to travel the oceans for two weeks, but should it
gather too much waste or the batteries run low, it would return to an ocean base where crews
would empty it of the plastic for recycling (Sigler 6). This prototype has people who think it
would not work but many people think it will. If the drone woks it will not only be able to take

plastic out of the ocean but also the Great Lakes waters as well. According to Sigler, if the drone
works it is estimated that 7.25 million tons of plastic waste could be removed from the ocean
(Sigler 7).
There are many ways in which human waste effects the Earth we live on. One major
impact humans play a big role in is the pollution of oceans and water sources. The water sources
are polluted with trash and plastic that is greatly effecting and harming aquatic life and animals.
This issue is not to be taken lightly, it should be dealt with right away. If the waters continue to
be polluted with plastic the harmful effects that happen to the animals is going to happen to
humans. Animals have souls and feelings just like humans, how would you feel if you got caught
in plastic waste and no one was there to help you get untangled, or dislodge it from your intestine
track. We need to start fixing the problems that human neglect has made for our animals and
aquatic life.

Works Cited

Adimey, Nicole M, Christine A. Hudak, Jessica R. Powell, Kim Bassos-Hull, Allen Foleye,
Nicholas A. Farmer, Linda White, Karrie Minch. "Fishery gear interactions from
stranded bottle nose dolphins, Florida manatees, and sea turtles in Florida USA. Marine
Pollution Bulletin 81 (2014):103-115. Web. 18 March. 2016.
Sigler, Michelle. "The Effects of Plastic Pollution on Aquatic Wildlife: Current Situations and
Future Solutions." Water, Air, & Soil Pollution: an International Journal of
Environmental Pollution. 225.11 (2014): 1-9. Web. 28 March. 2016