Arctic Ocean Seabed Increasingly Covered In Plastic & Trash: Amount Has Doubled Since 2006
The seabed under the Arctic ocean is increasingly strewn with litter and plastic, says a new study published in the Marine Pollution Bulletin.
For her study, Dr. Melanie Bergmann examined some 2,100 seabed photographs taken in the eastern Fram Strait between Greenland and the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen near the deep-sea observatory of Germany’s Alfred Wegener Institute. Bergmann found these photos show evidence that deep-sea plastic pollution doubled from 2002 to 2011.
On their way to the observatory, scientists regularly drag a towed camera system from their ship. The camera goes down 2,500 metres, 1.5 metres above the seabed, and takes a photo every 30 seconds.
Biologists mainly use these photographs to document changes in deep-sea life like sea cucumbers, sea lilies, sponges, fish and shrimps. But as she studied the photos, Bergmann found twice as many photos taken in 2011 showed deep-sea trash. Almost 70 per cent of the plastic litter had also come into some kind of contact with deep-sea organisms.
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http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/stories/article/65674trash_increasingly_litters_arctic_seabed_study/
