Dear Future President,

As you may know, the ocean is a beautiful place. All of the life that it contains is incredible and I love it! But us humans, are taking it for granted by abusing the ocean. People are too lazy to throw away their trash (plastics, oil spills, dirt, human waste, etc..) and just dumping it in the ocean. I don't think that humans take the time to think about how much harm pollution would take to the sea life, and our environment. If we were to take action today, it will take decades. The ocean will never be 100% pure, but even if we were to pick up trash by the ocean, it would help so much.

Oil, waste, soda cans, nets, and more are thrown into the waters daily. But worse of all, plastics are harming animals. Think about every piece of plastic you touch a day: grocery bags, food containers, coffee cup lids etc, all of that ends up in the ocean. In the Los Angeles area alone, 10 metric tons of plastic fragments such as grocery bags, water bottles, soda bottles, straws, and etc, are carried into the Pacific ocean everyday. Thousands of turtles, seabirds, seals and other marine animals have mistaken plastic for food and choke on it. Ine 2008, 2 sperm whales were found stranded along the california coast with large amounts of fishing net scrapes, ropes, and other plastic debris in their stomachs. In addition, coral reefs are also being harmed. According to a global study by Australia's Institute of Marine Science in 1992, 10% of coral reefs have already degraded ¨beyond recognition¨ and yet another 30% were in critical condition and another 30% were likely to disappear altogether within the next several decades. In August of 1997, the ¨Rapid wasting disease¨ wiped out huge patches of coral in 2,000 miswath ranging from Mexico to the Caribbean. As plastic debris floats in the seawater, it absorbs dangerous pollutants like PCBs, DDT and PAH. These chemicals are highly toxic and have a wide range of chronic effects, including endocrine disruption and cancer-causing mutations.

Do you go fishing with your family? The ocean not only suffers from waste that people are dumping in the ocean, but also from overfishing. We are taking too much of what the ocean needs from the ocean (overfishing). Even the deadliest species are slowing disappearing, such as sharks. 100 million sharks are killed every year due to their fin. The great desire for ¨Shark fin soup¨ is one big reason why they die. They catch the great big fish and cut off their fins to sell, then dump the rest of the body right back into the sea. Did you know that orange roughies can live up to 100 years? And that rockfish have a lifespan of 200 years? Well now those year have been cut short do to overfishing.

A step into helping, The Center has petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency to begin regulating plastics as a pollutant under the Clean Water Act. Other ways we can help is to not litter, do not dump things into the waters and storm drains. You might be thinking why storm drains, but it all starts on land. When people litter, the wind and rain carries it out to the sea. Even if you participate in streams, rivers, and beach clean ups, it's going to make a difference.

I hope that this message will inspire others including you, to do the same. Just think about it for a moment and ask yourself, “How beautiful is the ocean really? How amazing are all of the creatures in it.” Once you have that mindset, you will believe that ocean pollution is something we need to change. No matter how long it takes, or how hard I will have to work, I will do whatever it takes to protect the ocean because I love it:)

Love, Naihua:)