.png)
WPSS
AFFECTING ANIMALS
How Water Pollution Affects Biodiversity
Bleached Coral
Looks beautiful, right? But it's not. When pollutants enter the water, they smother coral reefs, lower water quality and spreads the growth of damaging algae. This makes the coral more susceptible to disease. These corals, when the water is very unclean, will expel algae that lives in their tissues and will turn completely white. Since these corals now have not many nutrients left, fish can no longer survive there. Not beautiful anymore, eh?
Algal blooms affecting ecosystems
We know all about water pollution now, but how does this affect all varieties of life?
Algal Blooms
Some might think that algal blooms look pretty... until you know how much damage it causes. To thrive, ecosystems need a complex web of animals, plants, and all forms of life, water pollution causes an algal bloom in many marine environments. An algal bloom is a toxic soup of blue-green algae that is harmful to people and wildlife. Algal blooms reduce oxygen levels in the water, and the death of this oxygen (Called eutrophication) can suffocate plants and animals, and as a result of this, the entire ecosystem collapses. In certain situations, harmful algal blooms can produce neurotoxins, which then affect wildlife, from whales to sea turtles to jellyfish.
Algal blooms are a sort of toxic soup of blue or green algae that is harmful to people and wildlife. Algal Blooms reduce oxygen levels in the water. Yes, humans can't breath underwater, but all sorts of underwater creatures can!! The death of this oxygen is called eutrophication, and it can suffocate plants, and animals, which collapses the entire ecosystem.
In certain situations, these harmful algal blooms can produce neurotoxins, which affects wildlife, from whales, to sea turtles, to jellyfish.
Harmful Contamination
Yes, all we have been talking about is how water pollution affects animals, but it can also affect humans. Even though there are process plants, most of the harmful chemicals still make their way into the environment. Harmful contaminants such as arsenic, copper, and lead have been found in tap water of EVERY SINGLE state in America. Water pollution has caused over 1.8 million deaths, as of 2015. Unsafe water can sicken EVERY PERSON. Nobody is immune, unless you're an alien. This could cause the next COVID, which no one wants, so let's stop water pollution!
Easily overwhelmed sewage systems release more than 850 billion gallons of wastewater that goes untreated each year. Disease-causing bacteria and viruses come from human and animal waste, which can cause major illnesses, come into our waters because of this. About 3.5 million Americans develop health issues such as skin rashes, pinkeye, respiratory infections, and hepatitis from sewage laden coastal waters.
Unclean water can kill more people a year than all forms of violence combined, and though shootings and murders are on the news, how much times have you heard about water contamination on the news? Really, we're taking away not only our lives, but other animal's lives, too, by doing this. Everything boils down to us, but of course, we were the ones who started it, too. Either we consume the water directly, or we eat an animal that has pollutants or contaminated water already inside it.
Animals are also affected by this. Chemicals and heavy metals from municipal/industrial wastewater contaminate waterways and the contaminants of these chemicals and heavy metals are toxic to all aquatic life, usually reducing an organism’s life span and ability to reproduce. This is how tuna and other large fish accumulate high levels of toxin, including mercury. Some animals might even try to eat the sewage.
Oil Pollution in Water
Some oil spills may dominate in news headings, but we also have a majority of oil pollution in our seas, including oil and gasoline, dripping from cars and trucks, EVERY SINGLE DAY. Not only do cars create methane gas, but they drop much oil, spilling all of it in the ocean! Oil spills only make up 12% of the oil that enters the water, and the rest comes from ordinary, everyday things, such as cars, dumping and drains. As oil can't dissolve in water, it forms a thick sludge, which suffocates fish. As well as getting caught in the feathers of birds, which stops them from flying, it blocks out sunlight, stopping the growth of photosynthetic aquatic plants.
Not only that, but oil can destroy the insulating ability of fur bearing mammals, like sea otters, and the water repellency of a bird's feathers. Without the help of these features, they will die from hypothermia once it gets cold. Yes, you can argue that there are many animals that survive without fur, but those animals are adapted to survive without fur.
Young sea turtles can also become trapped in oil or mistake it for food. Dolphins and whales can inhale oil, affecting lungs, immune function and reproduction. Many birds and animals can become poisoned, from ingesting oil when cleaning themselves.
Oil also affects plants and fish. Thought they might not be exposed right away, corals, fish and shellfish might come into contact with it if it is mixed into the water. When exposed to oil, adult fish may experience reduced growth, enlarged livers, changes in heart and respiration rates, fin erosion, and reproduction impairment while fish eggs and larvae can be especially sensitive to lethal and impacts. Even if these lethal impacts are not noticed, oil makes fish and shellfish unsafe to eat. Because oil spreads quickly, it is difficult to clean.
If anyone that reads this article does see an oil spill, please alert someone that will be able to bring others FAST, and clean up this spill before it spreads to others!
Debris
Marine ecosystems are being threatened by marine debris, which strangles, suffocates, and sometimes starves animals. Much of this solid debris includes plastic bags and soda cans. This debris gets swept into sewers or storm drains from people littering on the ground. This debris eventually reaches large bodies of water, turning our oceans into trash soup, turning our lakes into small islands of plastic, turning our ponds into messes. Things like discarded fishing gear are responsible for harming or evening killing more than 200 different species of life in bodies of water.
You may have heard people talking about the poor turtles, suffocating. Yes, these people are right, everyone, we should listen. Don't make fun of people trying to save our environment. Turtles are indeed suffocating from plastics being carelessly dumped into the ocean.
Many animals are too. For example, many species of fish are dying out because they mistaken plastic for food. When other animals eat those fish, they also die. Following this chain, we will soon have no marine life at all in the ocean.
Ocean Acid And Carbon Pollution
Ocean acids are harmful chemicals that make it tougher for animals such as shellfish and coral to survive. These chemicals all come from humans, who dump down harsh liquids without a care in the world. Let's stop dumping these down the sink, yes, it's faster to get rid of, but it still does much harm to the waters. Coral reefs absorb about a quarter of carbon pollution (also known as burning fossil fuels, seriously, adults are like little kids experimenting with dangerous things, even worse at doing things than little kids) that is created per year. This is making things much harder for shellfish, along with other species to build shells.
Well, actually it is pretty surprising to know, but many kids are much more educated about water pollution than adults. Yes, c'mon everyone, you are good at politics, let's stop that. Politics are important, but let's focus on what will change the real fate of our world: Water Pollution. For example, when one animal dies, for example, turtles. Turtles are actually really dangerously close to dying, with all the plastic bags floating everywhere. Then there will be no turtles to eat the jellyfish, therefore they will overpopulate. Then the overpopulated jellyfish will eat all the fish, leaving no food for any of the jellyfish, therefore then they will die out. Then the algae which the fish eat will die out, leaving pretty much nothing. A lot of nothing. Then, once there are no fish in the sea, there will be no seafood, leaving A LOT less food for us, therefore killing everyone, and everything. Then there won't be any politics anymore.
Global Warming
Rising temperatures, caused by carbon dioxide emissions heat up the water, which reduces it's oxygen content.
