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Filipino Scientist Finds Plastic at Third-Deepest Ocean Trench on the Planet - Philippine Trench

Filipino Scientist Finds Plastic at Third-Deepest Ocean Trench on the Planet - Philippine Trench

Plastic pollution in the oceans is on the rise, and it is now the most serious threat to ocean ecosystems.

According to a study, approximately 8 million metric tons of plastic enter the ocean from land every year. Plastic bags have a 'life' of 15 minutes before becoming waste, but it takes 1,000 years to decompose.

In March 2021, two scientists became the first humans to explore the Philippine Trench (10,000m below one of Earth's final frontiers), the world's third-deepest oceanic trench.

Dr. Deo Florence Onda, a microbial oceanologist from the University of the Philippines Marine Science Institute, and Victor Vescovo, an oceanic explorer from the undersea technology institution Caladan Oceanic, traveled to The Emden Deep, a part of the Philippine Trench that a human had never visited. This unexplored trench is part of one of the Earth's oldest seabeds.

For Dr. Onda, the trip was initially planned as a mission to study the environment and gain more knowledge about his specialty, which involves studying the life cycles and roles of oceanic microorganisms such as plankton – which play an important role in the preservation of biomass in the ocean and also to discover new things.

The two were expecting to see scary, crawling things as they reached the bottom, but instead, they were greeted by some familiar things that had traveled down from the surface. Dr. Onda recalled a humorous incident in which he saw a white material floating and mistook it for a jellyfish. However, as they got closer, they discovered that it was all made of plastic.

Dr. Onda said, "The only unusual thing there was the garbage. There was a lot of garbage in the trench. There were a lot of plastics, a pair of pants, a shirt, a teddy bear, packaging and a lot of plastic bags. Even me, I did not expect that, and I do research on plastics."

According to Dr. Onda, the trench was littered with human-made waste, including plastic bags and product packaging, as well as discarded clothing and even a teddy bear. Despite the harsh conditions, he was surprised by the size of the trash.

"There was a lot of garbage in the trench," Dr. Onda said. "Even me, I did not expect that, and I do research on plastics."

The discovery of plastic in the trench shocked Onda, who is concerned that the transboundary nature of plastic spread in the oceans has unknown but profound effects on marine ecosystems and thus on the very foundations of life on Earth.

"Microorganisms are the main drivers of carbon storage, which then drives climate change. When phytoplankton consumes carbon, taking carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, they convert it into particulate organic matter that sinks to the bottom of the ocean and gets stored for millions of years," Dr. Onda said.

Worryingly, the discovery of man-made waste in the deepest parts of the ocean is not a new phenomenon.

Previously, a plastic bag was discovered floating at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the deepest part of the ocean, demonstrating how even the most remote regions of the planet are not immune to pollution. In such environments, where sunlight is scarce, and oxygen is scarce, materials such as plastic do not degrade.

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