Oil, Litter and Chemicals By Avi Kintzer

A long time ago we had a beautiful ocean with fish swimming around. Now we have a polluted ocean with a lot of dead animals and plants. People throw plastic bottles and cans in the water and it is not healthy for the water or the animals in the water. How can we get back the ocean we used to have?

Litter is a very big problem in Puget Sound. A whale washed up on the beach had 20 plastic bags in it. This happened because people just throw junk into the ocean. Birds are feeding their chicks plastic bags because it looks like food for them and people don’t notice this is happening. Many animals have been eating plastic stuff witch kill them and people have to stop.

Scientists say the plastic will never biodegrade. Small pieces of plastic can absorb toxic pollutants. Scientists have found that fish are ingesting these when they eat the plastic. There is a good chance that we also ingest these toxins when we eat fish. In some places nearly 80 % of the garbage they found was plastic. “The problem of the ocean trash is totally preventable” says spokesman Tom McCann. He says “it’s something we can all solve ourselves. One trash pile is about the size of Texas.

Chemicals can kill animals and plants also. About 140,000 pounds of toxic chemicals get into Puget Sound each day. About 75% of the chemicals are carried off by storm water. Harbor seals in the Sound are 7 times more contaminated in pursuit in toxic known as Psbs than those living in the strait of Georgia witch goes on to the Sound.

Many things have an effect in Puget Sound for example, litter chemicals and oil. In 549 streams, lakes and rivers across Puget ‘sound are impaired by bad quality water.  When people use pestisides it washes out with the rain and goes to the storm drain and gets into Puget Sound. When your dog goes to the bathroom and you don’t pick it up it gets washed into Puget Sound and kills the animals that live there.

What would happen if everybody stopped throwing things in the ocean?  There is 14 million pounds of toxic chemicals that go into Puget Sound each year.  We should try to stop it by going to a car wash, picking up your dog’s waste and not just dumping your stuff down our storm drains.