Ocean pollution refers to any kind of invasive material or substance that enters the ocean and harms the aquatic environment and marine life. It is one of the most severe categories of pollution in the modern day. These substances include:
All of these cause damage to the oceans. Ocean pollution severely damages the water quality of afflicted bodies of water and also causes the death of marine life en masse. Pollutants such as plastic bags and water bottles enter the stomachs and systems of organisms and impair their proper functioning until they either leave the system or kill the organism. In the case of plastic waste products, there are disturbing occurrences known as garbage patches, like the Great Pacific garbage patch, which is a massive accumulation of plastics and other products that weighs millions of tons and covers 20 million square kilometers while rotating. This is only one of many instances of garbage patches in the ocean, and the death toll for marine life is incalculable and despicable, as well as despairing. To add to this already soberingly precarious situation, there are also oil spills which pollute our oceans to an unimaginable extent and cause enormous quantities of fatalities.