February 21, 2021: Marine Debris
Image courtesy of the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, Discovering the Deep: Exploring Remote Pacific MPAs. Download larger version (jpg, 989 KB).
A glass bottle seen at 1,152 meters (3,780 feet) depth at Titov Seamount in the Howland and Baker Unit of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument.
While deep-ocean exploration is responsible for ground-breaking discoveries, it is also unmasking the scale of our impacts in the deep ocean. Marine debris is a growing problem and a study published in May 2020 showed that even unexplored, remote, and protected areas of the central and western Pacific deep ocean are not immune from our touch.
From: Deep-sea Debris in the Western and Central Pacific.