Plastic waste has been found in the most remote places — including, now, a deep-sea canyon off the coast of Argentina, according to a recent study. “The very first item spotted was a plastic bag entangled on the seafloor,” said Diego Urteaga, study co-author and a marine biologist at Argentina’s Bernardino Rivadavia Museum of Natural Science, told Mongabay by email. “Seeing something so clearly associated with human activity lying on the seafloor at more than 1,000 meters [3,281 feet] depth was striking.” Urteaga and his colleagues used a remotely operated vehicle (ROV), equipped with high-definition cameras, to survey the Mar Del Plata Submarine Canyon in the southwestern Atlantic. The V-shaped canyon is located about 250 kilometers (155 miles) off Argentina’s coast. The study was originally designed to document the canyon’s biodiversity and habitats, but the “litter became impossible to ignore,” Urteaga said. Over 17 dives, the team observed 29 pieces of litter — mostly plastic, some rubber, including an isolated plastic tissue-paper packaging at a depth of 3,814 m (12,513 ft). “I was particularly surprised by the variety of objects we found,” Urteaga said. “They included fishing gear, plastic bags and wrappers, a plastic cup, and even a rubber boot.” The litter didn’t exist in isolation. Researchers observed marine organisms attached to it, including a sea star on a plastic bag and a fishing rope colonized by organisms, Urteaga said. “These observations are interesting because they show that litter does not simply disappear after reaching the deep sea: It can…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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