Researchers reveal amount of pollution in deepest parts of ocean
By Sean Dowling, Buzz60
Here's something that may turn your stomach!
Turns out, even the most remote parts of the Earth are not safe from our pollution and trash.
Biologists have been sampling tiny shrimp-like creatures, called amphipods and they found they are contaminated with extremely high levels of PCBs; toxic chemicals used in industry.
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The researchers are surprised because A. PCBs have been banned for decades, and B. the creatures were scooped up from the deepest part of the ocean, the Mariana Trench in the Pacific.
It's seven miles down at its deepest!
The area was thought to be nearly untouched by human activity.
That means not even the bottom of the ocean is safe from pollution!
It was especially shocking to biologist Alan Jamieson of Newcastle University in England.
He compared the contamination level in the amphipods to crabs living in one of China's most polluted rivers.
The shrimp like creatures won, hands down with levels 50 times higher in some cases.
The worst part?
It's our fault.
Jamieson thinks the pollutants latch on to plastic floating in the ocean.
Fish and other marine animals absorb the pollutants.
Eventually, the plastic and dead animals sink to the bottom.
He explained his findings in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.
His takeaway is that what we do or don't do has consequences all over the planet!
