Issues Affecting Marine Ecosystems

24 July 2022
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20 test answers

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question
The current responsible for holding the Great Pacific Garbage Patch together is called _______.
answer
a. the North Pacific Gyre
question
Explain how Seafood Watch promotes environmentally responsible fishing practices.
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Seafood Watch identifies seafood that has been harvested in a sustainable manner and promotes this seafood over varieties that were not sustainably harvested. The idea is that only the fishermen utilizing sustainable practices are rewarded financially and will therefore out compete their competitors. The theory goes that over a long period of time, only fishermen using sustainable practices will remain in business.
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Describe the sources of marine debris and explain why it is a problem with global origins.
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Marine debris consists of most anything used and discarded by humans. Winds, rivers and storms can carry this debris to the ocean from far inland, so it is not solely a case of pollution along shorelines. It is also true that oceangoing ships directly contribute to marine debris while they are at sea and not associated with any particular nation.
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By-catch is a term for that part of the catch _______.
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d. that was not actually being fished for
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Explain why bottom trawling is still being practiced when it is generally acknowledged as destructive and unsustainable?
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For some species of fish, bottom trawling is the most cost effective means of harvesting it. Additionally, as the populations of some fish decline their price goes up dramatically, making even a single catch extremely valuable.
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Explain why the biodegradation of plastic might be more hazardous to the environment than the presence of plastic as marine debris.
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While plastic is not generally considered biodegradable, it can be broken down by the action of photodegradation and certain microbes. The breakdown products of plastic, however, are extremely toxic to marine life and once the plastic breaks down they are free to enter into the food chain. Therefore, while plastic marine debris is hazardous and dangerous to marine organisms, the toxic breakdown products of plastics have the potential to do even more damage.
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Marine debris typically _______
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a. sickens, injures, or kills marine animals
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Seafood Watch recommends which seafood _______.
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a. to buy or avoid
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Which of the following best explains why overfishing is considered a bad practice?
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a. Overfishing is not sustainable and ultimately depletes a fishery.
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Explain how a policy strategy to reduce, reuse, and recycle might mitigate the impacts of marine debris.
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Marine debris results from human garbage that makes its way to the ocean. A strategy to reduce, reuse, and recycle would generally reduce the amount of garbage produced by society with the additional effect of reducing the amount of garbage that becomes marine debris.
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The Great Pacific Garbage Patch will be difficult to physically clean up because _______.
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d. all of the above
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Which of the following is not a goal of the Seafood Watch program?
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c. to increase fish sales
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Which of the following is not a possible consequence of animals ingesting marine debris?
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c. suffocation
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Which of the following best explains the current state of the majority of the world's fisheries?
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b. they are currently overfished
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Which of the following best explains why marine debris is not caused solely by countries bordering the ocean?
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b. Debris is carried to the ocean by winds, rivers, and storms.
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It is best to say that marine debris _______.
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d. all of the above
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Seafood Watch is a program that identifies sustainably harvested, ocean friendly seafood in order to _______.
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b. allow consumers to make environmentally responsible choices
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Which of the following best explains the environmental problems associated with trawling?
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b. Trawling gathers fish indiscriminately.
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The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is best described as _______.
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Not (b. a garbage patch formed of clusters of plastic debris)
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Which of the following is an impact of fishing on fisheries?
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d. none of the above