Thursday, March 31, 2011

Sea Squirts

Sea squirts were first found in the Northern Native waters, and are now world wide.  In the New England area they range from Virginia to Maine.  Each year the amount of Sea Squirts doubles in an area.  They are one of the most common non-native species in the New England area.
    They change out ecosystem, by killing and eating our food they we fish for everyday.  Such as oysters and mussels, they will go into their shells and squeeze them until they die and eat their bodies, and using their shells as a home.  By killing the animals we fish, they are making it so we have limited product to fish, and so we don't have enough to feed our families.
  They usually pray on smaller animals such as mussels, oysters, and baby fish.  When going after a baby fish or a mussel or clam, they wrap their bodies around the species, and release a toxic substance into the bodies killing them instantly.  After killing the animals, they later take over their habitat.
  There really isn't anything people can do to reduce the impact of Sea squirts only because they are so wide spread, and they keep coming and coming.  Even if they tried to get rid of them, all it takes is one little one left behind to keep reproducing and they grow more and more and keep spreading. They are not harming man kind, so there is no reason to harm them.

Monday, February 28, 2011

Types of Pollution Affecting Animals

         There are many types of pollution that can kill animals, but here are some of the major ones.  Noise pollution, which is mainly in zoos, can eventually kill some animals, when all the other animals are loud in the zoo; it reduces the ability for the birds to communicate eventually making them feel alone, when this happens they will start to pull their feathers out.
         Oil Pollution. Each year 500,000 birds are killed from oil pollution.  The oil destroys their habitats and coats their feathers.  Usually their feathers are water proof, but when it comes to the oil, it is to thick.  The oil makes it so they cant fly, it also gets on their skin and burns it and eventually kills them,
         Light pollution. People might not know this, but the bright city lights and the street lights affect the birds.  It blinds them making it so they cant find their way to their home.  It also causes birds to crash into one another and end up dieing.  Light pollution also messes up their flight patterns causing them to fly to the wrong places.

         Water pollution.  When items fly out of your car window, or even out of your yard, they all end up in the water.  The birds think it is food and ingest it, the things either stay in their stomach releasing toxins, or get caught in their throats killing them.  Also heavy metals and pesticides are leaked into rivers and lakes killing the fish, which makes it hard for the birds to get food.
         All of those things are the different types of pollution killing birds.  It’s a really bad thing that is also hurting our economy.  If it doesn’t get resolved many birds could become extinct and endangered.  People have to do what they can to help stop these things from happening.
<http://www.ehow.com/about_5317418_pollution-effects-birds.html>

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Sea Turtles Harmed by Plastic

Sea turtles are an animal that people don’t think about from day to day.  They think about their house pets and nothing of those that live in the wild or even in the ocean.  Sea turtles are facing extinction if we don’t stop throwing our plastic bags out the window.  The sea turtles see the plastic bags and think it is food such as dead jellyfish. And when they try to eat it, that plastic stays in their stomachs.  Over 100,000 sea turtles have been killed from plastic in their stomachs.  Leather Back Turtles are threatened with extinction because of the plastic in the ocean, and if we don’t stop, then in 10 years they will be gone.  So we need to do what we can to get sea turtles healthy again.  So stop throwing your plastic out the window, because it ends up in the ocean.


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<http://seapics.com/feature-subject/environment/ocean-pollution-pictures-001.html>
<http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090315224258.htm>
<http://www.seeturtles.org/1128/ocean-plastic.html>

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

How Throwing Trash Out Your Car Window Hurts the Animals

When people throw trash out the window of their car, what are they thinking about as they do it?  When you throw a single piece of garbage out your window, you are harming or even killing an innocent animal.  Even when you throw cigarette butts out the window you can be killing small mammals from the toxins in it.  160 million tons of trash is thrown on highways each year, 40% of it paper products that is killing the animals.  Over 14,000 animals are admitted annually from being hurt by the trash on the roads.  When you throw bottles out the window plastic, and glass you are putting the animals in danger.  Foxes and other large animals cut their feet on the broken glass and could die from loosing blood.  Small mammals can crawl into the plastic bottles and get trapped for days and die.  This is a huge issue all over the world and i think they we should all try harder to fix it.  Don't throw  your trash out a window throw it in a trash can.

<http://www.associatedcontent.com/article.2249551/animals_can_be_hurt_by_our_trash.html>
<http://environmentalchemistry.com/yogi/hazmat/articles/trash.html>





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Monday, December 6, 2010

Animals affected by BP oil spill

As you all know this year the oceans were damaged wit h large amounts of oil from when the BP oils companies tank burst and leaked large amounts of the oil into out oceans.  When that oil leaked into the ocean it hurt and killed a lot of animals on and off of land.  
Dolphins got badly hurt when the oil leaked into their habitats, which is the shallow part of the ocean.  Some of the dolphins also lost their eye sight from the oil getting into their eyes.  It caused mother dolphins to lose her babies cause she lost her eye sight and could not find her child.           
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Young Heron also died from the spill, they got stuck in the muck on the beaches and could not get out.  They lost their mothers who quickly left once the oil had gotten there.The oil got in the babies feathers and made it so he or she could not fly any where.  The toxic smell of the oil got in its respiratory system and shut the poor little bird down.
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One other sea animal that got hurt or killed for the horrendous oil spill is, sea turtles.  Their habitat in either areas in the ocean or on the beaches.  A lot of oil was also found on the beaches, and with the finding of the oil on the beach, they found sea  turtles struggling to keep their lives.  The oil was just to much for them and they were not able to go anywhere else to get rid of it.
Because of BPs oil spill a lot of the animals that we have living in the oceans have died.  That is a reason for animals soon becoming instinct.  We have to try out hardest to keep the ocean and the beaches clean of other pollution's, these animals can’t take it anymore.  If you see a hurt animal at the beach, call the local animal rescue.  Don't just walk away from it, the animals matter to.
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<http://www.ranker.com/list/top-10-cutest-animals-threatened-by-bp-oil-spill/joanne>

Monday, November 15, 2010

Shellfish effected by pillution

The first and most common animal affected by water pollution, is fish and seshfish.  Shelfish filter large amounts of water though their bodies absorbing food and oxygen and cleaning out any waste and toxins they have in their bodies.  When the lobster boats, and other boats go through the water and dispose of toxins into the water, it is killing many of the shelfish that live in that habitat. 
    Also the gas from the boats that leaks into the oceans, such as the busy Pacific Ocean, the gas gets into the fish and shelfish body systems and will evently kill them.  The biggest type of water pollution is cause by acid rain.  Acid rain is a result of industries and autoa burning oil and coal(fossil Fuels) for fuel.  The Acid Rain stays in the air for days and then falls into the Ocean, causing many shelfish to die.  When the acid rain falls into the water the fish breath it in and i gets into their body systems and kills them.
    Sewage is another thing killing the animals in the Ocean.  The sewage that comes into the ocean is very toxic and again when the shelfish and fish go to get food, the sewage will be all over their food and where they live and ruin their enviroment and kills alot of fish.
    Finally another major problem that is killing the sealife, is when dumps, and other people dump trash into the ocean, things like that, the animals can choke on and die.  When plastic iteams get thrown into the ocean the toxins in it will also make many sealife sick and cause many of them to die.
    When things like this happen, it makes the population on fish and shelfish go down.  Some people depend on fishing and lobstering for a living, but if people keep polluting the oceans and local rivers, some people will be out of jobs, and wont have money or food to feed their families. 
    So everyone has to work together to try and stop water pollution.  For the sake of the animals in the Oceans, and for the sake of other peoples jobs.  Do something about what is going on around you.  Throw you trash in the garbage can, recycle your plastic bottles.  Save the lives of animals around you.  Stop water pollution.

<http://www.mainewardenassociation.org/>

<http://www.takemefishing.org/general/conservation/water-pollution/what-causes-water-pollution>