Deep-sea cameras deployed to monitor biodiversity on the Arctic seabed have documented a significant rise in the amount of plastic waste and other litter on the remote sea floors of the Far North, according to a new study. While looking at many thousands of seabed photos taken in 2011 between Greenland and the Norwegian island of Spitzbergen, deep-sea expert Melanie Bergmann of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research was struck by the number showing plastic waste. In a detailed analysis of the photographs — which are taken every 30 seconds by a deep-sea observatory reaching depths of 2,500 meters — Bergmann and her colleagues found that while plastic waste was seen in only one percent of photographs taken in 2002, that number had jumped to 2 percent in 2011. Two percent may not seem like a high occurrence, Bergmann said, but the quantities observed in this remote Arctic region were greater than recorded in a deep-sea canyon near Lisbon, Portugal. According to the study, published in the journal Marine Pollution Bulletin, about 70 percent of the plastic litter had come in contact with deep-sea organisms.
Plastic Waste Increasing On Remote Arctic Seabed, Cameras Reveal
More From E360
-
Oceans
Why the Market for ‘Blue Carbon’ Credits May Be Poised to Take Off
-
Analysis
Are Huge Tree Planting Projects More Hype than Solution?
-
Policy
In Europe, a Backlash Is Growing Over Incinerating Garbage
-
Energy
The Oil Well Next Door: California’s Silent Health Hazard
-
Indigenous Lands
Why a Big Mining Project Could Wipe Out Rural Villages in Indonesia
-
Climate
Despite Pledges to Cut Emissions, China Goes on a Coal Spree
-
Interview
Stealth Chemicals: A Call to Action on a Threat to Human Fertility
-
Analysis
EV Turning Point: Momentum Builds for U.S. Electric Vehicle Transition
-
Climate
Is the ‘Legacy’ Carbon Credit Market a Climate Plus or Just Hype?
-
Essay
How the Loss of Soil Is Sacrificing America’s Natural Heritage
-
Energy
On U.S. East Coast, Has Offshore Wind’s Moment Finally Arrived?
-
Analysis
Why Drilling the Arctic Refuge Will Release a Double Dose of Carbon