A plastic bag at the bottom of the Mariana Trench - video

It is another sad day when we realise that as a species we have failed and are heading in the wrong direction. Last weekend, the world was alarmed at the scale of pollution in the deep ocean, symbolised by the plastic bag found at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the deepest place on Earth.

Scientists from the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology – JAMSTEC, have been studying human impact on pollution of the deepest places on Earth for 30 years. During this time they have located nearly 3,500 elements polluting the most inaccessible places in the Pacific.

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The entire study and observations of the researchers from the Land of the Cherry Blossom are included in their report “Human footprint in the abyss: 30 year records of deep-sea plastic debris”, which is available here. The results of three decades of research and observation were captured by remotely operated robots (ROVs) to create an enormous photographic record. It is available for viewing at Deep-sea Derbis Database.

Scouring the database collected on the above-mentioned website, we can find there records of 5010 dives, carried out in the ocean depths, by various kinds of devices and unmanned vehicles. During the observations, scientists recorded exactly 3425 pieces of debris, classified as man-made macroplastics – visible fragments larger than 5 mm in size.

The symbol of pollution in the deepest parts of the ocean was a plastic bag found at the bottom of the Mariana Trench less than 20 years ago, on 20 May 1998. In two decades, it has broken down into countless microplastics, which continue to pollute the oceans.

Only three people in the history of our civilisation have reached the bottom of the Mariana Trench. So how sad is it that the next ‘guests’ at a depth of almost 11 km turned out to be pieces of plastic, destroying this still poorly understood and fragile ecosystem, and we managed to contaminate the most inaccessible place on our planet.

Source: sciencealert.com

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