Scientists from the Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) have compiled a database of debris detected since 1983 by deep-sea submersibles and remotely operated vehicles.
The database archives photographs and videos of debris that have been collected.
The deepest record was a plastic bag at 10,898 metres in the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific, one of the deepest parts of the world’s oceans.
The data show that, in addition to resource exploitation and industrial development, the influence of land-based human activities has reached the deepest parts of the ocean in areas more than 1000 km from the mainland.
