Open-air garbage dump along the coast of Barrow, Alaska
Oil slick and pebbles
Hazmat workers cleaning up beach trash
Garbage on beach
Doll leg and other trash on a beach
Boy collecting floating trash
Exxon-Valdez oil spill covering the Alaskan shoreline
Days after the spill, fishermen confront oily gunk a foot thick clogging a bay on Eleanor Island - about 35 miles from the wrecked tanker
Aerial view of polluted water
Workers collecting floating trash
Cleanup worker near a spill
A crab crawling through an oil spill
Emulsified oil pollution from Braer oil tanker washing ashore
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Garbage Dump, AlaskaAn open-air garbage dump tarnishes the sapphire coast of Barrow, Alaska. Trash that makes its way into the oceans decomposes very slowly, littering coastlines, polluting ground water, and harming marine creatures that mistake the trash for food.
Photograph by Ken Graham/Getty Images

Polluted Oceans

Learn how we are hurting the largest habitat on Earth with these photos of ocean pollution, from the devastating effects of oil spills to the dangers of dumping.

October 09, 2009

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