Several media outlets, including National Geographic and the BBC, reported that American explorer Victor Vescovo spotted a plastic bag and candy wrappers during a record-breaking submarine dive into the Mariana Trench, hailed as the world’s deepest oceanic pocket. She did confirm, however, that whatever Vescovo found at the bottom of the ocean floor is, “something that resembled man-made waste” but could not say whether it was a plastic bag. Researchers who in 2018 combed through a database of photos and videos from previous dives found evidence of the world’s deepest-known waste — a plastic bag — in the Mariana Trench, according to findings released the same year. Of all the debris found in the database, plastic was found as the most prevalent type of rubbish. According to CNN, the team plans to test these samples to check how much plastic underwater species may be ingesting.

Source: National Post May 14, 2019 17:02 UTC