‘Extraordinary levels’ of pollution have contaminated even the deepest parts of the Pacific Ocean
Industrial pollution has reached even the most remote corners of Earth: the deepest part of the sea. Scientists have discovered “extraordinary levels” of polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, in the Mariana and Kermadec trenches, two of the deepest ocean chasms on the planet. While exploring life in the ocean’s hadal zone, a region 3.7 to 6.8 miles deep, Jamieson and colleagues measured contaminants in tiny shrimp-like scavengers called amphipods. Using deep-sea landing vehicles equipped with baited traps, the scientists collected samples of three species of amphipod from the Mariana Trench, in the western Pacific, and the Kermadec Trench, off New Zealand. “Regardless of depth, regardless of trench, regardless of species,” Jamieson said, pollutants “were present in all of them.” The study found elevated concentrations of contaminants, including flame retardants, in the upper portions of the trenches, about 4.5 miles deep.
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