Ocean Currents and Pollution by Kelsey, Drew and Theresa

Something that we would do would be to use refillable water bottles so that bottle caps and potentially the bottle that they come in would not go out to the ocean. In these past couple of weeks we learned that an incredible amount of plastic ends up in the ocean, especially bottle caps. Bottle caps cannot be recycled and when they end up in the ocean, animals eat them.  The animals cannot digest them; they build up in their stomachs and die because of this. The ocean currents carry and distribute these bottle caps all throughout the ocean.  Not only bottle caps but also shopping bags and plastic rings that hold six packs together. However, just trying to stop bottle caps from going into the ocean would be a big step to start fixing this problem.

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Currents

There are many things that we learned about the ocean currents. Ocean currents are a continuous, direct movement of ocean waters generated by different forces acting upon this, such as, wind, waves, the Coriolis Effect, temperature, and the tides. They can flow for a great amount of distance and help determine the climate of many of the Earth’s regions. Surface ocean currents develop their clockwise spiral in the northern hemispheres and their counterclockwise spirals in the southern hemispheres due to the different wind stressors. In wind-driven currents, the Ekman spiral effect results in the currents flowing at an angle to the driving winds. The salinity and the tides cause the gravitational pull of the moon and the sun.
One action that we will take to protect the ocean is to recycle a lot more and to use a lot less plastic in our everyday lives.

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Ocean Currents Move Pollution

Ocean currents help navigate objects in the ocean because of the Coriolis Effect as well as gyres, which systemize the currents formations within the ocean. Currents also decide where storms are going too be located because of Ekman transport which controls the winds which blow or navigate the water currents. Ocean currents affect everyday life by putting powerful currents against fishing industry determining the time of return of ships and boats around the worlds ocean. Sea life such as certain fish migrate towards warm ocean currents seasonally therefore also determines the amount of sea food captured by fishermen from their native countries. This is what I know about ocean currents and why they are important in the cycle of the oceans in the world.

I own a house in Machias, Maine located in front of the ocean and bay. The bay has a lobster fishing port where a number trash originates from. Ocean currents out further often transport trash and non degradable waste in front of my home which pollutes many beautiful natural waters and places due to pollution and shifting currents bringing in trash within our bay. This saddens me because plastic products such as bottles to plastic buckets destroy beautiful parts of nature due to the irresponsible of humans and their contamination. Often in the summer I and my family go for boat rides passing random trash within our ocean. In order to stop my dissatisfaction of these waters, I will help retrieve trash in open waters that I encounter. Ever since I was little my father and I have picked up trash washed up on the shores because of someday hoping the world can be cleaner again. If this occurs then pristine beauty as well as life will flourish again bringing the natural world closer to what it was ages ago.

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Protecting Our Oceans: Julia, Tasha, Calleigh, Luis

In Oceanography class we have recently been learning about oceans and how pollution can effect the creatures living in our oceans. We use a lot of plastic in our everyday lives and we need to be more cautious about where that plastic is going in the long run. What most people dont realize is that if we are careless and dont recycle or cut down on the amount of plastic we use, we are hurting sea creatures because of where that plastic ends up. In class, we have learned about currents and we have watched graphic videos of sea creatures being hurt by the plastic that is in our oceans. We need to take action and change how much plastic we use and we need to make sure that we recycle the plastic that we do use. By using less plastic, we can have a big impact on the cleanliness of our oceans and better the lives of the creatures in the oceans. One action that we could take in order to reduce ocean pollution is to make sure that we are recycling all of our plastic. Another thing that we could do to prevent plastic in our oceans is reusing the plastic that we have so that we create less waste in the long run. Keeping our oceans clean is an important thing and we have many ways that we can help keep creatures safe from the harm that plastic poses. Changing minor parts of our every day lives can help ensure a longer, healthier life for the animals that live under the sea!

An example of the destruction that ocean pollution causes in West Hawaii

Mae West, the snapping turtle stuck in six pack can packaging
A video of Mae West in action:

Beth Terry, an activist for a plastic-free life
A link to her blog: http://myplasticfreelife.com

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How do patterns of physical changes in aquatic systems affect our lives?

We have learned about ocean currents, the Coriolis effect, Ekman transport, salinity, densities, and how nutrients are moved throughout the ocean. Through learning all of this, we have learned about the devastating effects that plastic has on the ocean. The ocean is becoming polluted due to plastic. The plastic that is going into the ocean is being moved throughout the oceans. We read stories about rubber duckies, we saw the image of the turtle; it was awful. When learning all of this we decided we need to make changes to help our environment and oceans. One action item Kyle would like to do is to use paper bags instead of plastic ones. Gerry also agrees with this. Calvin will reuse plastic bottles, so that all the plastic does not go into the ocean because there will be less of it. I will now use reusable water canteens instead of plastic Poland Spring water bottles. We will also recycle the plastic Tru Moo containers at lunch. With these simple changes, we believe we could have a positive impact on the ocean and reducing plastic pollution.

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