Survey Reveals Widespread Public Ignorance About Ocean Science

Do you know the main source of ocean pollution? How about the source of most of Earth’s oxygen? Stumped?

So were most people surveyed about their knowledge and attitudes toward the ocean this summer in a national poll.

The Ocean Project, a nonprofit environmental group based in Washington, D.C., released results of their poll Nov. 30 showing that while 92% of Americans consider oceans essential for human survival, public knowledge about ocean science is abysmal.

Julie Packard, executive director of the Monterey Bay Aquarium, said the survey gives ocean advocates “a much better picture of what people know--and what they don’t know--about the oceans.”

“We clearly have a lot of work ahead of us,” she said.

When asked to choose the main source of ocean pollution among three sources, only 14% of the people polled selected the correct answer--runoff from yards, pavement and farms.

Most, 66%, chose “waste dumped by industry,” and 16% said most pollution is from trash and litter washed into oceans from beaches.

Only two out of 10 of the people polled knew that oceans produce more of the Earth’s oxygen than trees.

The survey, conducted by the national research firm of Belden Russonello & Stewart, sampled 1,500 adults during two weeks this summer. The margin of sampling error for the study is plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.