Informatinal Project

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What do you know about Ocean Dumping & Microplastics?

Many of you might have heard about deforestation, rising sea levels, greenhouse gases,

melting icebergs, toxic waste, and trash islands. But have you ever heard about ocean

dumping? Do you know what is it? Have you ever heard of it? Those are questions that I

asked my friends that are my age. A large majority of my friends didn’t know what ocean

dumping was. Some of them had heard about it once or twice but didn't know exactly what

it could be. That is the problem that I have, my generation, the next generation of adults

doesn't know what is going on in their ocean. They are clueless and it is concerning to me.

How will the next generation of adults guide future generations if they don't know what's

happening around them? It is a serious problem, it is either they aren't getting educated

about it, they are ignoring it, or the country/news is covering it up with bigger/fake news. It

isn't just 1 of these reasons, it's all of them.

Big companies release toxins and chemicals into the ocean and one of those companies

is Tepco. Tepco is an electric power company in Japan that is located in the city of

Fukushima. They had a plan to release treated waste

from the Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific

Ocean.

Tepco has over one million tons of treated

wastewater. But it isn't treated great, the water still


has dangerous chemicals like tritium, carbon-14, and hydrogen, which can be

threatening/dangerous to wildlife and citizens. But there are more than 1000 tanks of waste,

and that amounts to about one million tons. A tsunami damaged the nuclear plant badly and

Because of that experience, the company decided that dumping the toxins into the ocean was

the best option because if another natural disaster were to occur it would spill the tanks onto

land and it would be harmful to humans. On August 24th, 2023 they started to dump the

toxic waste into the Pacific Ocean and said it would take 30 years to complete.

Other countries had a lot to say about this matter, especially China. China said, “that

Japan is treating the ocean as a private sweater and that they had selfish interests above the

long-term being of the entire humanity”. I agree with China, Japan is dumping a million

tons of waste into the ocean without knowing the consequences, Scientists said that dumping

the toxins into the ocean wouldn't make it more radioactive than it already is. But if you

raise the radioactive level a little it still has negative effects.

Korea a close neighbor of Japan had a few things to say too, a citizen Park Hee-Jun

said “The government enforces a strong no-littering policy at sea… But now the government

is not saying a word (to Japan) about the wastewater flowing into the ocean,”-(Park Hee-Jun,

BBC), "Some of the officials say we should remain quiet if we don't want to make consumers

even more anxious. I think that's nonsense."- (Park Hee-Jun, BBC). People in other countries

are concerned as well, it isn't just the citizens in Japan that are being affected. Korea's food

culture will have a negative effect alongside other countries such as India, The Philippines,
Vietnam, Thailand, etc. But Asia isn't the only continent that will be affected, it could be the

whole world because the water will spread.

Citizens in Japan have voiced their concerns. They said that they fear their livelihoods

and that they now fear consuming seafood and avoiding it. If citizens stop eating seafood it

can damage the economic system. Some of the consequences are that fishermen will lose

customers, they will not make any money for their families, the country will lose jobs, and

there will be a big negative impact on their culture's food. As for ocean life, Ocean dumping

affects the coral reefs, The coral reefs aren't just plants that are in the ocean. They are home

to many different species of fish. If those fish lose their homes they will not have anywhere to

live. The coral reefs give shelter and if the fish lose that they are going to be hunted, it is like

us losing our houses; if we lose them we will not be safe, we will be out in the open in danger.

Companies are Ocean dumping chemicals like mercury, lead, and other chemicals. These

chemicals can affect the coral reef's reproduction, growth rate, feeding, etc.

Ocean dumping is a huge problem in today's world and Tepco is only 1 of the

thousands of companies companies that are doing it. We have to let future generations pay

attention to this problem, to make them care about it because if the harmful chemicals and

toxins continue we won't have an ocean in which we can have a beach day or go fishing in.

All we will have is an ocean that no one will be able to go into. An ocean where it is filled

with dead fish and chemicals.


Works Cited

Hancock, Nicole. “Marine Dumping — Safe Drinking Water Foundation.” Safe

Drinking Water Foundation, 23 January 2017, https://www.safewater.org/fact-

sheets-1/2017/1/23/marine-dumping. Accessed 7 May 2024.

“The impact of microplastics on female reproduction and early life.” NCBI, 24 July

2023, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10399130/. Accessed 7 May

2024.

“Learn about Ocean Dumping | US EPA.” Environmental Protection Agency, 7 April

2024, https://www.epa.gov/ocean-dumping/learn-about-ocean-dumping. Accessed 7

May 2024.

“Threats to Coral Reefs | US EPA.” Environmental Protection Agency, 28 February

2024, https://www.epa.gov/coral-reefs/threats-coral-reefs. Accessed 7 May 2024.

Wong, Tessa. “Fukushima: What are the concerns over wastewater release?” BBC, 24

August 2023, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-66106162. Accessed 7 May

2024.

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