Oceans are a vital component of life on earth, and it is not just for marine life. Oceans serve as a major source of water evaporation which contributes to a major proportion of freshwater supply. In addition, phytoplanktons make substantial contributions to the conversion of carbon dioxide into the oxygen we breathe.
Ocean pollution can be in various forms such as plastic waste, human sewage from bathing and laundry, chemical pollution by industrial processes that ultimately settle in the ocean. In addition, single events like oil spills and chemical leakages contribute to ocean pollution. This means that ocean pollution is a major problem that must be tackled immediately as it negatively affects the performance of crucial marine organisms like phytoplankton which ultimately affects the marine organisms consumed by humans.
Biotechnology can provide alternate resources and solutions to enable the industrial process to be more energy-efficient and cleaner pollution-wise in addition to being used to directly degrade the pollutants. The methods used for ocean pollution reduction are landfill technologies and bioremediation or biodegradation.
Solid waste makes up a large portion of pollutants in oceans. A substantial amount of these are plastics and glass but there is also a considerable amount of decomposable waste such as food waste from farms that end up in the ocean. A method used by non-urban communities for discarding this waste is a low-cost anaerobic landfill. This method is not efficient and takes a long time to degrade the solid waste. Through the use of modern biotechnology, bacteria present in these landfills can be studied to identify the most effective strains in degrading specific components of waste. The bacteria selected can then be cloned to produce a large quantity to apply directly at the site to increase degradation efficiency.
Bioremediation is the use of naturally existing microorganisms to increase the rate of degradation of a substance. The promotion of microbial growth can be used to directly clean up the environment by breaking down solid waste compounds. Another method would be to genetically modify fast-growing microorganisms with the ability of degrading solid waste material. After bioremediation, the hazardous pollutant will be broken down into non-hazardous compounds or less hazardous compounds. This can be used for neutralizing radioactive waste from nuclear facilities using microorganisms such as GS-15 which can help process the waste to make it easier to dispose of for example. Substantially these methods will reduce the overall amount of waste pollutants released to the ocean.
Oil spills are a major concern for marine ecosystems. Pseudomonas spp. that has been genetically modified with the ability to degrade petroleum and petroleum products could be used to clear up the ocean in such a scenario. This can also include plastics that are petroleum-based as well. Tons of plastic waste polluting the oceans can also be degraded using microorganisms modified with Ideonella sakaiensis genes to break down polyethylene terephthalate (PET). Thus biotechnology can be used as a solution to tackle ocean pollution.
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