Earth: Oceans

deep sea dumpFor more than 20 years, scientists have used robotic vehicles to

explore a deep-sea canyon near Monterey, California. When they recently studied video from those dives to look for pollution, they counted more than 1,000 discarded tires, shoes, bottles, and other pieces of marine debris.

Marine debris, which is washed into the ocean from land or dumped overboard from ships, is a problem in oceans around the world. Animals can get tangled in trash or eat it by mistake. Some garbage also leaks chemicals that damage the environment.

Unfortunately, cleaning up deep-sea debris is extremely expensive, says Kyra Schlining, a marine biologist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. “We should focus on stopping the trash before it ever touches the

ocean.”

-Rachel Nuwer