Research Essay- Rough Draft 1

Brianna Ciriaco

ENG 1001- 027

Research essay- Rough Draft 1

30 March 2020

Research Essay

Marine Biology. Marine biology is the study of ocean plants and sea animals. The issue being that there is a lot of over fishing in our oceans as there is over eating sea food and plastic pollution. The background of these studies argues can we change and keep our oceans safe and healthy again? Fisheries management says that there are too many fisheries that over fish in our area that is affecting the species in our ocean. In fact, it is taking away other species lives that we don’t even fish for. There is also a problem in the fish we eat on a daily basis. If the fish is not from a local fishery we should then not consume the fish. The last problem is the oceans plastic crisis that is leading to a problem for not only the fish, but sea bird life as well. If we stop local fisheries from fishing in the ocean, and eating the sea food, and reducing our amount of plastic we use daily, our oceans would be much cleaner and healthier for our sea animals to reproduce again. These arguments provide up to date detail on the problem and what we should do to keep our oceans alive.

Marine Biology has many different problems. But with these problems also come solutions. One of these problems is overfishing. Overfishing causes fishes not being able to breathe and reproduce correctly. Fisheries and their management has encouraged fishermen to catch as many fish as they can without regard to the long term health of the fishery. However, when fisheries institute rights based on management, fisheries become motivated of their oceans.  This works by fishermen getting a secure share of the catch and agree to limits that allow fish populations to rebuild. This as an long term ownership stake, in the share of the fishery that all fisherman can sell or grant to his or her children. When this fishery grows, his stake increases along with his or her profits. A certain right based on fishing called catch shares has transformed fisheries in the United States. Overfishing has dropped 60% in federal waters since 2000. Its better management is providing more stable fishery’s and increased revenue. Since 1970, the artisanal fisheries are being forced to compete with other fisheries from abroad. This has affected the fish population in a very negative way. Illegal fisheries have become a bigger problem. Legitimate fishing is a dangerous job. Fishing labor also plays a big part in transitional labor. The sector has been mostly used by drug traffickers who use boats as mules that awaken coastal communities. Let’s take a deeper look into such fisheries.

Not only overfishing has been such a problem to our oceans, but eating the sea food has too. Weather it was caught sustainably plays a big part in keeping our oceans alive with sea animals. There are many toxins in sea food consumption that we don’t even realize. Also how that sea animal was taken from its habitat. These cause and effects might play big rolls on our family. The biggest threat to our ocean is lack of knowledge. When we consume unsustainable seafood, it affects our oceans in many ways. The most common way is missed connections between our seafood industry, and habitat destruction plastic pollution. Threatened species cause tropic cascade. When a ecosystem loses too many individuals of one of its organisms, the animal then starves. The lost organism is a predators, and as prey populates, the food source of the prey gets low. This is a vicious cycle that can kill off the ecosystem. As to overfishing, it is not only affecting the ocean but it’s people too. Billions of people rely on fish as a source of protein, but with less fish and higher price, this can become a big problem. The biggest solution to this problem is not to buy seafood that is caught by industrialized, unsustainable fishing practices. Ensure the fish you eat is sustainable and locally caught. Fish for the sea food yourself or go directly to the fisher after determination of the sustainable fishing practices. You can ask in person how they catch the sea food they sell. Beware of imported fish, often through industrialized practices. If sea food is apart of your culture or practice, then try marine life for a change and don’t buy sea food.

Plastic waste is destroying our oceans. It is estimated by 2050, oceans will carry more plastic than fish and estimated that 99 percent of sea birds will have consumed plastic. Plastic kills about 1 million sea birds, 100,000 sea mammals, marine turtles and many other kinds of fish each year. 80 percent of the pollutions in our oceans comes from land- based activities. Half of the plastic manufactures have been produced in the last 15 years. Nearly 700 species, including endangered, are known to be affected by plastic. Nearly every sea bird eats plastic. There are 5 massive patches of plastic in the oceans around the world. These are big concentrations of plastic debris that cover large swaths of the ocean. A garbage trucks worth or plastic is dumped into the ocean every minute. If this trend continues, 12 billion metric tons of plastic waste will exist in the world by 2050. According to recent studies, scientist agreed that corals that come in contact with plastic have 89 percent chance of contracting disease, compared with a 4 percent likelihood for corals that do not. A microplastic particle is a piece of plastic smaller than five millimeters, but many are much smaller and only visible under a microscope. Microplastic is in fragments, pellets, beads, fibers, and film. It can be made up from a number of different materials with hundreds of different chemical additives.  An average person consumes 70,000 microplastics each year. Microplastics have been found 93 percent of bottled water tested in a world wide study. Microplastic has been found in 90 percent of table salt. Global plastic production has quadrupled over the past four decades. We are producing over 300 million pounds of plastic every year , 50 percent of single use plastics. Plastic takes more than 400 years to decompose. Plastic industry will make 881 billion pounds of plastic, 40 percent of this is thrown away in 20 minutes. Plastic production has increased from 2 million metric pounds in 1950 to 380 million metric pounds. The American Chemistry Council said the US Industry plans to spend 47 billion dollars on new plastic production capacity over the next decade. Currently, about 42 percent of plastic is designed for packaging, which is especially troubling most plastic packaging is designed for single use. In 2019, the production of plastic will add more than 850 million metric pounds of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. This is equal to the emission from 189 five hundred megawatt coal power plants. US emission from plastic incineration in 2015 are estimated at 5.9 million metric pounds of CO2e. Emissions from plastic production and incineration could account to 56 gigatons of carbon between now and 2050. That is 56 billion pounds, or almost 50 times the annual emission of all coal power plants in the US. Americans use 200 billion plastic bags a year which requires 12 million barrels of oil to manufacture. Plastic bags are used for an average of 12 minutes but takes up to 1,000 years to degrade in landfills. The average American family takes home 1,500 plastic shopping bags a year, according to Natural Resources Defense Council. According to Waste Management, only 1 percent of plastic bags returned for recycling. This means an average family only recycled 15 bags a year, the rest end up in landfills. The 8 essentials looking up from this crisis are to 1, reduce plastic dependency. 2, increased producer responsibility. 3, increase fees and taxes on pollution plastics. 4, increased waste management where the problem is greatest. 5, implementation of the zero vision for ocean plastic. 6, increased mapping, surveillance and research. 7, stop the flow of plastic waste into the ocean. 8, increased funds for clean up. From here on out, I’m sure we can help keep our oceans healthy, clean, and maintained.

This problem and solution is a good example of logos. I say this is a good example of logos because if we change our oceans cleanliness, it can easily be backed up with data, facts, and statistics. If we change our oceans overfishing, we can easily say that the production of our fish will bloom and that local fisheries will have less fish to carry. We can check these facts by going to local fisheries and checking back on our species. We can also stop so much eatery on sea food that shows a graph of people who quit eating se food and see our ocean animals reproduce dramatically. I think we can also prove that less liter in our ocean is possible by asking ocean cleaners how the liter is on the damns in our ocean and also the health of our animals. The conclusion is that it is a proven fact we can prove through facts that our oceans health is coming along better than it was before if we all choose to do so. By not fishing, eating seafood, or polluting the ocean, we are sure to see an improvement on sea life and our oceans well being.