'Disturbing' Results Show High Pollution Levels in Mariana Trench
'Disturbing' Results Show High Pollution Levels in Mariana Trench
By Laura Geggel, Senior Writer | February 15, 2017 10:38 am ET
The vast underwater wilderness of the deep sea may be largely unexplored by humans, but it's still incredibly polluted, a new study finds.
Researchers made the finding by using baited traps to capture tiny crustaceans in the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific Ocean — the deepest known spot on Earth — and the Kermadec Trench, which sits off the northeastern coast of New Zealand.
Surprisingly, pollution concentrations in the crustaceans plucked from the Mariana Trench were 50 times higher than those in crabs found in paddy fields fed by the Liaohe River, one of the most polluted rivers in China, the researchers wrote in the study. [In Photos: World's Most Polluted Places]
"The only Northwest Pacific [Ocean] location with values comparable to the Mariana Trench is Suruga Bay (Japan), a highly industrialized area," the researchers wrote in the study.
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