Imagine if there were no oceans on Earth! So many things we depend on come from beneath the waves. As a source of food, the oceans provide us with a variety of plants and animals that form an important part of the daily diets of people in many parts of the world.

Oil and gas that come from the seas give us fuel to drive our cars and heat our homes. Even some of the medecines that help cure us when we are ill come from marine plants and animals.

These things will no longer be available to us if we neglect our responsibilities to nature. Just as we rely on the oceans to provide us with things necessary to our survival, ocean survival depnds upon human awareness of, and protection from, pollution and activities that harm valuable, endangered marine life.

Pollution is a problem that threatens the world's oceans. One of the most damaging pollutants is oil, which enters the oceans as municipal runoff and industrial waste. Oil tanker accidents also have dumped millions of gallons of oil into the sea, harming the water, shoreline, and plant and animal life. Cleaning up spills has proven a difficult task, and scientists and environmentalists have employed various tactics, none of which is completely effective. One approach is to contain the spill with booms (a type of barrier) and then try to recover the oil with skimmers or sorbents, such as straw or vermiculite. Microbes also are sometimes used to degrade the oil; chemical dispersants may be used to break it down as well. Often, a combination of methods is employed.

We can all do some very simple things to protect the oceans. Disposing of garbage safely will help keep ocean wildlife safe from contamination. When we visit a beach, let's be careful to leave plants and animals just as we found them. 

If we help educate others to the benefits of oceans, then we will know that we are helping to preserve and protect one of our planet's most important assets. By encouraging students, with their parents, to collect newspaper or magazine articles relevant to ocean pollution, we will begin that journey to awareness and responsibility. Following is an excellent link to research on pollution. Gander Academy Ocean Pollution.