The Sea is Calling (For Our Help!!)

Our Oceans Are In Serious Trouble.  Did you know that each year over one million marine animals are killed as a result of plastic debris floating in the ocean? As a lover of the sea I feel compelled to write this article after watching a news flash showing tons of plastic floating in the ocean.  Pollution has pretty much taken over this planet, but now it’s affecting the sea more than ever! Our love of plastic convenience is killing the ocean, and now pollutes every corner of the earth.

What made me realize just how bad the environment has been affected was the recent ban on plastic bags in my state of Connecticut. There is now a ten cent charge per plastic bag.I have noticed lots of people refusing to purchase these bags now that we must pay for them, especially in a state where we are already overtaxed. But something good had come out of this after all. Less plastic is being put out into the environment. But is it too late?

Now the major stores and grocery chains are not innocent. I remember being given more than necessary shopping bags and double bags for even the smallest purchases. Yup, the major corporations are just as guilty! I feel they should be held responsible for this nightmare as well as consumers. 

Another thing I have noticed is just how much I don’t even need a bag at all. Many people are finally starting to bring reusable bags to do their shopping. But why weren’t we doing this all along? Why do so many marine life such as turtles, birds, and fish have to die for our carelessness?

I go to the beach often, and it just amazes me how people don’t care to clean up after themselves! I see people fishing in the lake or river where trash is thrown into. Don’t you ever wonder how someone can eat from the very thing they use as trash?  Don’t they ever think about where all of our seafood comes from. Plastic is being found in the digestive system of the fish we eat. That means we are also ingesting plastic.

My biggest fear is that someday we will no longer be able to eat seafood, swim in the ocean, or worse…all marine life will die. This is already starting to happen all over the world. People are contracting flesh eating diseases from polluted water, and due to highly dangerous bacteria some beaches are unsafe to swim in. Our water quality has greatly diminished, yet no one realizes just how much we need the sea.

As a society we have to do more than ban plastic bags in some states. We have to take responsibility and do our part as individuals to keep the ocean clean. If you are a lover of the sea, please share and do your part to help motivate others to save our precious ocean. 

Here are ways we can help.

I believe in the importance of teaching children while very young, the importance of keeping the ocean clean because the lesson will stay with them as they become adults. They will inherit this mess, unless we do something about it now. I have been passionate about this issue for many years  wrote about it here in this children’s book.

Pickles McNickles Day At the Beach is all about a boy who befriends a dolphin. In doing so, he learns all about the magic dolphin’s environment. Check it out here on Amazon, and if you make a purchase, thank you for your support.