Plastic Pollution - how we litter the seas with plastic and how we do not
Plastic pollution in the Mariana Trench
© Wolf Wichmann
In this precarious time concerning worldwide pollution, the actual dimensions plastic pollution has actually taken is still surprising. Not a single crevice in the ocean is safe from non-degradable particles. Even at almost 11 km below the surface, at the deepest point of the ocean known as the Mariana Trench, scientists found plastic. It is no secret that approximately 94% of the plastic found in the ocean is located somewhere on the seafloor. Nonetheless, this finding reveals the shockingly high contamination of plastic within the most remote place, the deep sea. This outlines the absolutely dire state the planet really is in, as it allows for the biomagnification and -accumulation in the deep sea food web, a highly complex and sensitive system in a very fragile ecosystem.
The related article of Damian Carrington from the Dec. 20th 2018 can be found on The Guardian.
More information about the deep sea can be found in our DEEP SEA campaign and more information regarding plastic can be found within our PLASTIC POLLUTION blog.
