Freedumb! Every Seafloor Site In 32 Locations In Europe Rich In Garbage, Up To 4.5 Kilometers Down

[hatrack]

Bottles, plastic bags, fishing nets and other human litter have been found in Europe's deepest ocean depths, according one of the largest scientific surveys of the seafloor to date.

Scientists used video and trawl surveys to take nearly 600 samples from 32 sites in the Atlantic and Arctic oceans and the Mediterranean Sea, from depths of 35 metres to 4.5 kilometres. They found rubbish in every Mediterranean site surveyed, and all the way from the continental shelf of Europe to the mid-Atlantic ridge, around 2,000km from land.

Plastic was the most common type of litter found on the seafloor, accounting for 41%, while rubbish associated with fishing activities (discarded net and fishing lines) made up 34%. Glass, metal, wood, paper and cardboard, clothing, pottery and unidentified materials were also documented.

Jonathan Copley, senior lecturer in marine ecology at the University of Southampton, who did not take part in the study, said: "This very important research confirms what most of us who work in the deep ocean have noticed for quite some time – that human rubbish has got there before us. "But this paper presents an analysis of the kinds of rubbish, what is common where, and what sort of activities are having the most impact in terms of rubbish reaching the deep ocean in different regions. People are piecing this together on a global scale to appreciate how widespread this problem is potentially."

EDIT

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/apr/30/human-litter-european-seafloor-survey-ocean-deep

[ladjf]

1. Would it be feasible to dredge this stuff up and possible recycle it? nt

[OnlinePoker]

2. It wouldn't be economically feasible.

It's not like this stuff is concentrated in one pile. It's spread over the full floor of the oceans. You can't use trawls to bring it up because that would destroy any plant and animal life that is in the same area as the junk. If you used submersibles, the damage to the environment from just operating it and its support vessel would probably outweigh any benefit from removing the litter. Best to leave it in place and let nature absorb it over the next several millenia.

[pscot]

3. No problemo

Once we're gone all that trash will be buried under natural detritus. A couple thousand years down the road it'll all be smoothed over.