Ocean Animals In Danger
Florida’s oceans, lakes and rivers are filling up with harmful pollution at an alarming rate, endangering the lives of many marine animals. There are not just one or two marine animals in danger of extinction. Instead, a huge percentage of marine life is dying off at alarming and unsustainable rates.
Many sea creatures die a painful death after getting caught in plastic bags, containers and fishing nets, as well as ingesting plastic, metal and even glass. Here are 5 of the many marine animals in serious danger from ocean pollution.
These amazingly beautiful creatures are paying a huge toll for ocean pollution. In fact, they are considered the most “toxic” marine animal in the world. Dead beluga whales are often found heavily saturated with herbicides, pesticides and other runoff-delivered chemicals. These whales are so pumped full of toxins that they must be treated as “toxic waste.”
Six Endangered Marine Animals You Might Not Know
As a result of these exposures, rates of cancer are higher in Beluga Whales than any other species on land or at sea.
Many other whales are in grave danger as well. Many species of whales have washed up on shore all over the world with bellies full of plastic, fishing nets and other debris found to have contributed to their death.
The adorable Hawksbill Turtle population has dropped by an estimated 80% in the last 50-years. These turtles are largely at risk due to overfishing, as they are heartlessly killed for their meat and shells in parts of the world. Ocean pollution is also playing a huge rule in their demise as water pollution and poison fishing contribute to the degradation of coral reefs, which these turtles depend on for survival. (Source)
Endangered Marine Species
Coral reefs, which are vital for many sea animals to survive, are commonly damaged by oil, trash, fishing nets and fertilizer as well as human and animal waste carelessly dumped in the area.
The largest Sirenia species is the Florida Manatee, but according to estimates there are only 3, 200 of these blubbery giants left. Many manatees meet an untimely death because of high levels of pesticides and herbicides in the water.
The Indian River Lagoon, located off the coast of Florida in the Atlantic Ocean, is home to the most bio diverse lagoon ecosystem, including manatees. So it’s pretty concerning that it has been nicknamed the “killing zone” due to the large numbers of dolphins, manatees, pelicans and sea grass beds that have died off in recent years. The cause relates directly to toxic algae blooms created by pollutants in the water. These blooms destroy the sea grass beds, taking away the manatee’s main source of food.
The Most Dangerous Sea Creatures
Birds are commonly discovered tangled in debris or with bellies full of plastic and other pollution. Seabirds can easily mistake garbage for food, but when they eat things like plastic and metal their bodies can’t break it down, leading to painful impactions and often death. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species includes over 40 endangered or critically endangered seabirds, along with 18 vulnerable species. (Related Article)
Seals and Sea Lions all around the world are declining at rapid rates, and one large contributor to declining populations is pollution. Plastic packing bands are often cited as strangling seals and sea lions.
According to the NOAA’s Marine Debris Blog, “Young seal and sea lion pups tend to play with marine debris, not knowing the harm they can cause. Packing bands are sometimes found in the marine environment tangled up in a big ball, which would certainly be alluring to a curious sea lion. When they do get wrapped around or embedded in a seal or sea lion’s neck, the wound can be horrific and expose the animal to infection.”
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You’re never too young to start helping reduce the amount of pollution in the ocean. Knowledge is power, and the more people that are aware of the problem the more likely we are to institute real change.
Tell your friends, family and anyone that will listen to you about the problems our oceans and marine animals are facing due to pollution. After all, 80% of ocean pollution originates directly on land, so you can make a direct impact by being more aware.
Take note of the amount of trash you produce, make sure it ends up in the garbage or recycling and never litter. Go above and beyond by picking up litter and properly disposing of it.An old plastic fishing net snares a loggerhead turtle in the Mediterranean off Spain. The turtle could stretch its neck above water to breathe but would have died had the photographer not freed it. “Ghost fishing” by derelict gear is a big threat to sea turtles.
Most Endangered Sea Animals
This story is part of Planet or Plastic?—our multiyear effort to raise awareness about the global plastic waste crisis. Learn what you can do to reduce your own single-use plastics, and take your pledge.
On a boat off Costa Rica, a biologist uses pliers from a Swiss army knife to try to extract a plastic straw from a sea turtle’s nostril. The turtle writhes in agony, bleeding profusely. For eight painful minutes the YouTube video ticks on; it has logged more than 20 million views, even though it’s so hard to watch. At the end the increasingly desperate biologists finally manage to dislodge a four-inch-long straw from the creature’s nose.
Raw scenes like this, which lay bare the toll of plastic on wildlife, have become familiar: The dead albatross, its stomach bursting with refuse. The turtle stuck in a six-pack ring, its shell warped from years of straining against the tough plastic. The seal snared in a discarded fishing net.
Top 10 Most Dangerous Animals In The Ocean
But most of the time, the harm is stealthier. Flesh-footed shearwaters, large, sooty brown seabirds that nest on islands off the coasts of Australia and New Zealand, eat more plastic as a proportion of their body mass than any other marine animal, researchers say: In one large population, 90 percent of the fledglings had already ingested some. A plastic shard piercing an intestine can kill a bird quickly. But typically the consumption of plastic just leads to chronic, unrelenting hunger.
Some animals now live in a world of plastics—like these hyenas scavenging at a landfill in Harar, Ethiopia. They listen for garbage trucks and find much of their food in trash.
On Okinawa, Japan, a hermit crab resorts to a plastic bottle cap to protect its soft abdomen. Beachgoers collect the shells the crabs normally use, and they leave trash behind.
Of The Most Dangerous Plastics Polluting Our Oceans
“The really sad thing about this is that they’re eating plastic thinking it’s food, ” says Matthew Savoca, a marine biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “Imagine you ate lunch and then just felt weak and lethargic and hungry all day. That would be very confusing.” Fish such as anchovies, Savoca has found, eat plastic because it smells like food once it’s covered with algae. Seabirds, expending energy their malnourished bodies don’t have, roam farther in search of real food, only to drag back plastic waste to feed their young.
What makes plastic useful for people—its durability and light weight—increases the threat to animals. Plastic hangs around a long time, and a lot of it floats. “Single-use plastics are the worst. Period. Bar none, ” Savoca says, referring to straws, water bottles, and plastic bags. Some 700 species of marine animals have been reported—so far—to have eaten or become entangled in plastic.
We don’t fully understand plastic’s long-term impact on wildlife (nor its impact on us). We haven’t been using the stuff for very long. The first documented cases of seabirds ingesting plastic were 74 Laysan albatross chicks found on a Pacific atoll in 1966, when plastic production was roughly a twentieth of what it is today. In hindsight, those birds seem like the proverbial canaries in a coal mine.
Besides Large Creatures, What Are The Most Dangerous Sea Animals?
The photographer freed this stork from a plastic bag at a landfill in Spain. One bag can kill more than once: Carcasses decay, but plastic lasts and can choke or trap again.According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), hundreds of marine species worldwide are classified as endangered or critically endangered. The IUCN red list determines a species’ status by considering the probability of extinction, breeding levels, current population, and other factors.
Many marine species, including North Atlantic Right Whales, Whale Sharks, Asian Giant Softshell Turtles found in Southeast Asia, porpoises, bluefin tuna, sea otters, manatees, and fur seals, are on the edge of extinction as climate change, habitat loss, and overfishing become a major threat to their existence.
It is found in the tropical regions of all the world’s oceans, gulfs and seas- mostly in coral reefs. The Hawksbill Turtle’s population has declined by 80% over the last century.
Top Five Threats To Life In The Ocean
Known to be a subject of heavy trafficking in the tourist trade in tropical regions for their meat and shells, these turtles have been killed mercilessly.
With their beautiful patterns, the Hawksbill Turtle’s colourful shells make them a valuable item in the market. They are often sold as “tortoiseshells.”
Even though harvesting its eggs is banned in many countries, the practice continues. Its population decline has also resulted from the degradation of coral reefs, which the Hawksbill
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