Dive Team Finds Plastic At Bottom Of Belize's Legendary Great Blue Hole, 120 Meters Down

[hatrack]

The celebration of the first divers to survey the bottom of Belize's giant sinkhole was tempered by the discovery that plastic pollution had beaten them to it.

The Great Blue Hole draws the viewer and tourists to it like some like some tropical singularity into which the ocean drops away. It's one of the Central American country's most iconic landmarks.

However at the bottom of its pristine natural beauty divers have found a dirty secret.
The perfect circular pool descends 120 metres, creating a dark ring of water. It is at this depth that the team led by Virgin founder Richard Branson made the shocking discovery of plastic bottles and pollution.

Even here - at this place never before visited by humans – the ocean floor cannot escape the impact of man-made pollution. At this popular tourist site, the expedition of two three-person submarines were deployed to explore the depths. The aim of the mission was to measure the extent of climate change on the ocean cave system, though they had not been expecting to discover plastic pollution at such extreme depths.

EDIT

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/travel/news/article.cfm?c_id=7&objectid=12194234

[gtar100]

1. It only takes a few idiots to mess it up for everyone else.

The mountains I hike in are filled with amazing rocks shaped by millions of years of natural processes revealing ancient landscapes and periodic cataclysmic events. But a closer look reveals countless places where some assholes came and ripped out artifacts from the rocks. Acid stains and pick marks abound, all clearly happened since Europeans invaded the area. It's heartbreaking.