SILLY QUESTION, SERIOUS ANSWER

WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF YOU PILED ALL THE SALT IN THE OCEAN ON LAND?

You couldn’t build a salt shaker big enough to store it all. About 70 percent of the Earth’s surface is covered with water. And most of it – 97 percent – is salty. If you pulled out all that salt and piled it on land, it would create a layer 500 feet (152 m)  deep across the entire land surface of the Earth.

WHY IS THE OCEAN SALTY?

The next time you sputter after accidentally swallowing seawater at the beach, consider this: That bitter liquid around you once washed the land. Each drop of refreshing rainwater contains an itty-bitty bit of carbon dioxide absorbed from the air. That gas gives rain a slightly acidic bite, which washes away rocks and soil when the drops splash against the ground. This process creates salty sodium and chloride ions that follow streams and rivers into the ocean. All those ions add up: roughly 3.5 percent of the seawater’s weight is from salt.

WHY IS IT EASIER TO FLOAT IN THE OCEAN THAN IN A SWIMMING POOL?

All that dissolved salt makes seawater denser (or heavier) than freshwater- and objects float more easily in dense water. Take a dip in the Dead Sea- which is ten times saltier than the ocean- situated between Jordan and Israel, and you’ll have amazing bobbing abilities.

WHY CAN’T I DRINK SEAWATER?

Consider seawater’s awful taste a warning: It contains more salt than your cells and organs can handle. Ocean water is nearly four times saltier than the fluids in your body. Your kidneys need fresh water to flush out excess salt, so every gulp of seawater will make you thirstier and thirstier.

You’ll need to take in more freshwater than seawater to avoid dehydration and eventually death.

WHY DON’T FISH IN THE OCEAN DIE OF THIRST?

Marine (or ocean) fish are constantly drinking to keep their bodies hydrated, but not all that water goes to their bellies. Some of the seawater passes over special salt-extracting cells in their gills: the rest is swallowed down. A saltwater fish’s gills and kidneys work overtime to process all the salt and flush it back into the ocean. Freshwater fish and sharks, meanwhile, don’t need to drink water. Water passing over their gills combined with the chemical makeup of the fluids in their bodies keep them hydrated.

WHAT ABOUT MARINE MAMMALS AND SEABIRDS THAT DON’T HAVE GILLS?

Dolphins, seals, whales, sea lions, manatees- these aquatic creatures live in a world of water, but their drinking habits are more in line with those of camels and other animals of the desert. Salty seawater is as toxic to marine mammals as it is to us. When they need a drink, marine mammals grab a bite to eat, sucking the moisture from fish, squid, and other aquatic entrees. Meanwhile, seabirds such as terns and albatrosses have special glands near their eyes that absorb the salt from seawater and flush it out their beaks.

WHY IS THERE AN ISLAND OF GARBAGE IN THE PACIFIC OCEAN?

Soda bottles tumble into the surf. Garbage cans fall off ships. Grocery bags blow out to sea. About 260 million tons (235.9 mt) of plastic are produced each year worldwide, and as much as 10 percent of it ends up in the ocean. Unlike food and other organic garbage, plastic doesn’t dissolve; it just breaks into smaller and smaller pieces that can stick around for centuries. Twine, toothbrushes, discarded toys, to-go bags, and less identifiable pieces of plastic drift around and around in an enormous ocean vortex created by currents, sort of like a slow flushing toilet that never drains.

WHERE EXACTLY IS THIS ISLAND?

You’ll find it 1,000 miles (1,600km) from shore in the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean midway between Hawaii and California. Bleach bottles and old garbage bins bob amid fishing nets tangled with rotting sea creatures. Scientists call this swirling mass of trash the Eastern Pacific Garbage Patch. Twice the size of Texas, by some estimates, it’s the world’s largest dump.

SO, IS THE PATCH DANGEROUS?

It is for the locals. Sea turtles, fish, and marine mammals choke on the larger pieces.  Scientists fear that the plastic will block sunlight from reaching plankton, tiny organisms that form the basis of the ocean’s food chain. If plankton populations plummet, the entire marine ecosystem will suffer.

DO SHIPS EVER CRASH INTO THIS MOVING ISLAND?

No. Much of the Garbage Patch is actually a sort of plastic soup made of confetti-size ‘’micro-plastics’’ that float on the surface or hover below the waves. Boats can sail right over it.

WHY CAN’T WE CLEAN UP THIS MASS OF TRASH?

It would take a full year to skim the microplastics from just one percent of the Garbage Patch. And there’s more garbage where that came from. Similar trash vortices swirl near Japan and in the North Atlantic. But it’s never too late to cut down on our use of plastic.