Hello everyone,
Welcome to Diving into Ocean Pollution! I’m Sarah, a final year undergraduate majoring in Environmental Studies. In this blog, I will be sharing about the topic of marine pollution (sometimes used interchangeably with ‘ocean pollution’).
According to the United Nations (1997), marine pollution is defined as the “direct or indirect introduction by humans of substances or energy into the marine environment (including estuaries), resulting in harm to living resources, hazards to human health, hindrances to marine activities including fishing, impairment of the quality of sea water and reduction of amenities“. This definition comprises a broad range of pollution types, or as Howard (2019) put it: “flavors” of marine pollution. This includes issues like plastic pollution, chemical pollution, noise pollution and light pollution.
My blog posts will dive into these often complex issues with a focus on their sources/cause, effects and solutions. You can expect to read a fluid mix of informative posts, report summaries, interesting articles and candid reflections.
Why ocean pollution?
I am very excited to be writing about marine pollution, as this is a topic close to my heart. My love for the ocean has skyrocketed since early 2020, when I went on my first intertidal walk and discovered the amazing creatures exposed at low tide. I became hooked on the thrill of finding these cool marine organisms and now head to Singapore’s intertidal areas every month (no matter how early in the morning or late at night the low tide might be).
However, each time I visit these areas, strewn on the ground alongside crabs and sea stars is marine litter. I do my best to pick up the trash I encounter on my walks but a sense of sadness still lingers after, as I am confronted by the truth that we (humans) are the cause of much damage to the natural environment.
As I dig deeper to understand the complexities of marine pollution through this blog, I especially hope to learn more about what I (both as an individual and potential corporate/NGO employee) can do to mitigate the issue. Follow me along on my journey and I’ll see you in the next post!
Cheers,
Sarah
References
Howard, J. (2019). Marine pollution, explained. National Geographic. Retrieved from https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/critical-issues-marine-pollution on 21 January 2022.
United Nations (1997). Glossary of environment statistics. Studies in Methods, Series F, No. 67. Retrieved from https://unstats.un.org/unsd/publication/SeriesF/SeriesF_67E.pdf on 21 January 2022.