y as 8.8 million tons of oil enters the oceans every year as a cause of human activity. It Is also said, that at any given time, the ocean contains over 280,000 tons of tar balls. All kinds of garbage, ranging from fishing nets to trash, from cargo ships to litter on the beaches, finds its way into coastal waters and the ocean. Here, it traps, ensnares, and entangles marine wildlife such as many different species of marine mammals, sea turtles, and seabirds. Plastic pellets have been found on the surface of the Pacific at concentrations of 21,000 per square mile; a cleanup exercise on the coast of Texas yielded 15,600 six-pack rings along 1.8 miles of coastline; and a National Academy of Sciences review once estimated that over 14 billion pounds of garbage enters the ocean from sea-based sources alone. In the 1980s, it was reckoned that 30,000 northern fur seals died each year after becoming entangled in marine debris, principally lost or abandoned fishing gear. Heavy metals--mercury and lead, for example--and organochlorine compounds such as PCBs and DDT, have been associated with a wide variety of impacts on marine wildlife(Mulvaney 29-30).A serious form of ocean pollution might be heading to the coast of New Jerseystarting in October. The conflict is that the New York Port Authority wants to dredge McIntyre 3New York Harbor, which is full of contaminates such as mercury and other toxic andharmful substances, off of Sandy Hook, New Jersey. New York is planning to dump 40 million tons of toxic mud six miles off shore. Just when you though it was safe to go back in the water,* stated Degener, dumping off the NJs coastline starts up again.*The fate of the ocean is inextricably entwined with that of the coast*(Mulvaney30). One of the major reasons for the increase in ocean pollution, is the increase in population on our coastlines. If more people inhabit our coastlines, more trash is brought into these areas, therefore causing an i...
