Texan investor Victor Vescovo took his submersible vessel 6.8miles deep into the Mariana Trench and found a plastic bag!
The Pacific Ocean’s Mariana Trench is the deepest place on Earth. It’s deeper than Everest is high. The Mariana Trench is 10,928 meters deep while Everest stands 8,848 meters tall.
Vescovo made his dive in a submersible on April 28 as part of his “Five Deeps” Expedition, which involves journeys to the deepest points in each of Earth’s oceans. This is number four of five. Vescovo spent four hours at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, where he observed several marine creatures—one of which is a potentially new species—a plastic bag, and candy wrappers.
It’s not the first time plastic has been discovered in the deepest of the world’s waters.
Plastic seems to descend with ease. Earlier this year, a study sampled amphipods in six deep-sea trenches, including the Mariana, and found all were ingesting microplastics. We covered that story back in March right here on Plastic Generation
While we’re all doing lots to try to reduce the plastic waste in our oceans it’s clear there’s still a lot more to be done.