An object described by a spokesperson for the Five Deeps Mariana expedition as “manmade” is illuminated at top right by the light of the submarine DSV Limiting Factor on the floor of the Pacific Ocean’s Mariana Trench. (Photo via Reuters)What can you find at the deepest point of the ocean? Trash.
In a startling discovery, Texas investor and explorer Victor Vescovo has found plastic objects nearly 6.8 miles (35,853 feet/10,928 metres) in the Pacific Ocean’s Mariana Trench.
In a four-hour dive earlier this month, Vescovo and his team undertook the deepest dive ever made by a human inside a submarine named DSV Limiting Factor. They reportedly discovered human-made objects on the ocean’s floor, like plastic objects and angular metals, and undiscovered marine species.
“It was very disappointing to see obvious human contamination of the deepest point in the ocean,” Vescovo was quoted as saying by news agency Reuters.
Sea creatures swim around a part of a submersible lander, illuminated by the light of the submarine DSV Limiting Factor on the floor of the Pacific Ocean’s Mariana Trench (Photo via Reuters)According to the United Nations, there is an estimated 100 million tonnes of plastic waste in the world’s oceans.
The submarine DSV Limiting Factor (Photo via Reuters)The expedition has made four dives in the Mariana Trench in the last three weeks to collect biological and rock samples.
(With inputs from Reuters)
