The ocean floor harbors up to 11 million tons of plastic waste, according to new findings from CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency, made in collaboration with the University of Toronto in Canada.
According to scientists, this is a hundred times more than the amount of plastic floating on the surface.
Plastic enters the ocean from a variety of sources, including rivers, sewage and ships. At the bottom of the ocean, plastic concentrates around continental masses, with almost half of it located at depths of up to 200 meters.
Plastic pollution has profound and multifaceted impact on ocean ecosystems, affecting almost all levels of the marine food chain. Marine animals can become entangled in the remnants of plastic nets or swallow it, which can lead to injury, illness, starvation and even death.
Plastic can also leach harmful chemicals into the water, which can accumulate in the food chain and affect the reproduction, growth and survival of marine life. In addition, plastic can change the marine environment, for example, block sunlight from photosynthesizing algae and seagrasses.
In addition to environmental damage, plastic pollution affects economic activities such as tourism, fishing and shipping, earth.com notes.
Alex Shishlo для Rough&Polished
