Animals in the deepest ocean trenches have been found with plastic fragments in their gut, according to new research showing how pollution reaches even the bowels of the planet.
More than 300 million tons of plastics are produced annually, and there are at least 5 trillion pieces of plastic floating in our oceans.
Because deep-sea exploration is expensive and time-consuming, most studies on plastic pollution until now had been close to the surface, showing widespread plastic contamination in fish, turtles, whales and sea birds.
Now British researchers have discovered cases of plastic ingestion among tiny shrimp in six of the deepest ocean trenches.
For details: https://bit.ly/2EABCAM