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ROVs Discover Deep Sea Trash
An anonymous reader writes "Deep beneath the ocean's waves, strange creatures such as rockfish and gorgonian coral thrive in the icy depths. Yet there's something else you'll find if you go searching beneath the sea: trash, and lots of it. Researchers have discovered that our trash is accumulating in the deep sea, particularly in Monterey Canyon off of the coast of California. Scientists knew that trash was affecting shallower depths--about 1,000 feet beneath the water. Yet they were unsure whether the effects extended to the truly deep parts of the ocean that reached up to 13,000 feet. They decided that there was only one way to find out: look for themselves."
The great thing about deep-sea trash is that it decomposes extremely slowly compared to stuff at shallower temperatures, so it'll be around for a while...
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
It would have been interesting if the researchers could have figured out how old the trash was--i.e. what make/model of shoe, any identifying marks on the tires, etc. But the major thesis is clear enough: disposable consumerism has victims and unintended (or ignored) consequences.
First, the trash doesn't seem to "accumulate" on the sea floor, but appears to get buried over time, removing it from the ecosystem. Furthermore, they haven't actually shown significant negative effects.
Of course, it's good to recycle more and people shouldn't discard trash in the ocean, but people should also be truthful and unbiased in the presentation of their research.
Definetely. The supply of lots of deep see trash, combined with the demand to kill all humans, will make the slowly evolving deep see monsters use it to build weapons of mass destruction to get rid of us. ;-p
...because they did address the points you made in the source article.
First, the trash doesn't seem to "accumulate" on the sea floor, but appears to get buried over time, removing it from the ecosystem.
They specifically admitted this in the article. The specific quote reads : "A lot of it gets buried by underwater landslides and sediment movement. Some of it may also be carried into deeper water, farther down the canyon."
Furthermore, they haven't actually shown significant negative effects.
Which the study also admitted. They even pointed out that the rubbish was sometimes benefited the marine life. The specific quote reads : "Other effects on marine life were more subtle. For example, debris in muddy-bottom areas was often used as shelter by seafloor animals, or as a hard surface on which animals anchored themselves. Although such associations seem to benefit the individual animals involved, they also reflect the fact that marine debris is creating changes in the existing natural biological communities."
I think that it is unfair for you to accuse these researchers of telling lies and being biased.
If the government sinks a whole ship, it's "creating an artificial reef" ---- but if I throw an old shoe into the water, I am "polluting the environment"?
Stuff that sinks, sinks.
Quite what were they expecting? Rubbish like tyres and ropes (i.e. stuff that sinks), which are disposed of in/around water will end up at the bottom of the water. Is this shocking?
Sea animals might become trapped in it. Not news. Sea animals might use it. Not news.
Quite what is the point? To make those of us who DON'T realise what millions of tons of junk does when you throw it in an ocean think bad of themselves?
And, to be honest, on the sea-floor it's more likely to be buried than it is to decay. That's probably a good thing for the life down there. In a few million years it'll be rock again.
Are these "scientists" genuinely astonished that they discovered this rather than the alternative (which is presumably that there's no rubbish down there at all?). I was taught that dense stuff sinks back in primary school.
When a ship is deliberately sunk to create a reef ALL the volatiles and potentially toxic substances are removed. Basically all you are left with is iron and a few other metals which are enviromentally benign and are oxidised back to the minerals they came from in a few hundred years.. A shoe however is full of glues, polymers and other man made substances which could take literally millenia to decompose and poison the enviroment in the meantime.
One man's deep sea trash is another man's deep sea treasure.
Chewbacon
The Bible is like Wikipedia: written by a bunch of people and verifiable by questionable sources.
down there should be loads of fun for researchers.
Yeah, we did that
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
That Gorgonian Coral did not look too thrilled to have a plastic bag wrapped around it.
People should be truthful and unbiased in their analysis of facts.
They feared that it could be used to suppress protest or support unpopular rule.
The same coral isn't going to be happy being knocked over by a shark, or having rocks tumble on top of it. All of those happen regularly.
You can't make arguments for environmental protection without actually quantifying impact. Showing a few pictures of creatures in distress and then arguing for action is manipulative and dishonest.
What?
They couldn't find a single golf ball (out of hundreds of thousands) that were probably pitched off of a cruise ship or yacht?
No, no, no. Providing artificial homes for wild animals is only good when it is done in coordination with the groups that have enriched themselves at the pubic trough studying the best way to build artificial shelters. Only after years of study are we allowed to build such shelters.
Obviously, these creatures would have been much better served by properly constructed shelters (union workers, OSHA oversight, etc) instead of these haphazard things tossed out there.
I believe your last sentence 9the part between the commas anyway) was an accurate rephrasing of the desired goal.
victims
Apparently nobody told the sealife that they shouldn't be making homes in trash. You say old shoe. Rockfish says fish house.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Every time you take a sip of water you are drinking few water molecules that have passed Adolf Hitlers bladder
I AM NOT AN OCEANOGRAPHER, but I bet the plastic bags outnumber the frickin' sharks at that depth.
They feared that it could be used to suppress protest or support unpopular rule.
The problem has never been with people that don't know this, the problem is with people who are apathetic toward it. We can do a whole hell of a lot with minimal additional effort to improve our waste situation...
+1 Disagree
Sharks with frickin' lasers can vaporize the bags! Lets get that patent in!
I don't believe most of you realize the extent to the trashing of the arable topsoil.
The hoboroadie used to marvel at the plastic bags drifting overhead from the Altamont landfill heading toward Tracy, or the Sierra Nevada, there to wrap themselves around a Centauria solstitialis or some such, and into the food chain.
As a farmer, I have occasion to observe the process under a variety of conditions, and believe the magnitude of the damage is cause for concern.
They feared that it could be used to suppress protest or support unpopular rule.
=/ Yeah I fear that is too tempting of a solution to landfills and just simply lest wasteful practices. That is horrifying to hear. Don't get my wrong I live in a household that produces its fair share of waste and I take it to the landfill every few weeks. And I am always frowning at how much there is. Though a lot is biodegradable. However separating the biodegradable food waste etc... from the crap that should be cleaned and stacked and re-sold-re-used is something IMPOSSIBLE to teach my roommates. They refuse to consider it an option. "Why should we do it if no one else does". "Its garbage!"
B.S. there could be warehouses were this stuff was stored neatly and cleanly until it needed to be used again as packaging material, containers etc...
And the amount of energy it would take to clean it all and re-transport it would be far less than creating new stuff in China.
Why is this news? People have been throwing thrash into the oceans since people existed. FTA
I RTFA'd looking for photos and videos and was going to skip the comments, but I had to let you know that about a minute into the video Pandora started playing "Message In a Bottle".