One of my favorite activities is answering questions for curious minds. At the Monterey Bay Aquarium we get questions from guests as well as inquiries that come in via e-mail. A number of us staff members respond to questions, but I’m sure I get the most interesting ones. And, of course, the best answer is one that triggers yet more questions.
As a biologist, I’m often on the receiving end of some of the more indelicate questions. And so it was the other day when one of our visitors asked, “Does it hurt the fish if you pee in the ocean?” Such an insightful question indeed! The simple answer is “probably not.” The urine from a healthy human is mostly water, sterile, and contains a small amount of salts and nitrogenous waste. One person peeing in the ocean isn’t a big deal.
But the bigger question is, How many humans pee in the oceans every day? Can that hurt the fish? Now the answer is a definitive yes. Consider that most rivers and streams flow to the ocean, as well as all the coastal sewer systems that discharge to the ocean. It becomes apparent that at least hundreds of millions of humans pee in the ocean every day in one way or another. Now this starts to make a significant difference.
But there’s still more to consider. For those that can afford medicines or vitamins, it turns out that our bodies use only a portion of those compounds, and our kidneys filter out the rest to discharge as waste. Even the best sewage treatment plants aren’t able to neutralize all those chemicals, so some flow into the ocean in waste water. Fishes and other marine life may be exposed to artificial hormones, antibiotics, anti-depressants and all sorts of other pharmaceuticals. We’re only now starting to look for the effects of these chemicals in the nearshore environment. We’re seeing impacts on the reproductive biology of some organisms, for example.
So even the most simple question can lead to a deeper conversation. And one answer or one bit of information is just a drop in the sea of knowledge available to us. Every question is an invitation to inspire the inquirer and help them to a greater understanding of the world we live in.
-Jim Covel
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