---
title: "Ocean Pollution & Harm"
description: "Identify ways humans harm the ocean: plastic pollution, overfishing, oil spills, and ocean acidification from carbon dioxide, and understand that most ocean pollution comes from land-based activities,"
canonical: https://lightmysky.com/learn/science/ocean-pollution-and-harm-mt_J6uccv2Bo4
source: https://lightmysky.com/learn/science/ocean-pollution-and-harm-mt_J6uccv2Bo4.md
retrieved: 2026-10-19
---

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# Ocean Pollution & Harm

Identify ways humans harm the ocean: plastic pollution, overfishing, oil spills, and ocean acidification from carbon dioxide, and understand that most ocean pollution comes from land-based activities, not just ships

Subject: Science · Area: Ocean Life · Ages 9 to 11
Page: https://lightmysky.com/learn/science/ocean-pollution-and-harm-mt_J6uccv2Bo4

## Ready when they can

- Name at least three ways humans harm the ocean
- Explain that most ocean pollution originates on land, not from ships
- Describe how plastic pollution or overfishing specifically harms marine animals

## Lesson: How People Hurt the Ocean

People harm the ocean in several ways: plastic pollution, overfishing, oil spills, and extra carbon dioxide that makes seawater more acidic. Here is a surprise about trash: most of it never starts at sea. Trash from streets, chemicals from farms, and waste from factories wash through storm drains into rivers, and the rivers carry it all the way to the ocean.

*(drawing: Imagine 10 kg of ocean trash sorted by source: about 8 kg from land and 2 kg from ships.)*

**Example.** A floating plastic bag can look just like a jellyfish. A sea turtle bites into it, thinking it found a meal, and the plastic can make the turtle sick or get stuck inside it. Overfishing hurts animals too: when boats catch too many fish of one kind, that fish can run out before it has a chance to make more baby fish.

**Tip.** You can help by picking up litter before rain washes it into a storm drain. Every piece of trash that never reaches a drain never reaches the ocean.

**Recap.** Ocean harm comes from plastic, overfishing, oil spills, and carbon dioxide, and trash in the ocean mostly starts on land, not out at sea.

## Practice

8 questions on this page, each with its working shown.

## Needs first

- [Ocean Food Webs](https://lightmysky.com/learn/science/ocean-food-webs-mt_OnV_DTp5i8)
- [Ocean Ecosystems](https://lightmysky.com/learn/science/ocean-ecosystems-mt_w4OYcWJs6H)

## Opens up

- [Protecting the Ocean](https://lightmysky.com/learn/science/protecting-the-ocean-mt_50SdpkNH49)
- [Predator Loss and Ecosystem Effects](https://lightmysky.com/learn/science/predator-loss-and-ecosystem-effects-mt_NPTjGJIyb3)