Study Suggests Deep-Sea Creatures Are Eating Plastic

For the first time, researchers have found microplastics in creatures that reside in the deepest parts of Earth’s oceans.

Researchers believe the discovery, outlined in a study published last month in the Royal Society Open Science journal, means that “it is highly likely there are no marine ecosystems left that are not impacted by plastic pollution.”

Study authors examined three species of amphipods – a shrimp-like crustacean – in six deep-sea trenches across the Pacific Ocean: the Mariana Trench, the Japan Trench, the Izu-Bonin Trench, the New Hebrides Trench, the Peru-Chile Trench and the Kermadec Trench. The locations, which were sampled between 2008 and 2017, ranged from roughly four to seven miles deep.