{"id":45611,"date":"2016-07-28T02:04:42","date_gmt":"2016-07-28T06:04:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetsave.com\/?p=45611"},"modified":"2016-10-24T06:54:51","modified_gmt":"2016-10-24T10:54:51","slug":"even-10000-meters-sea-industrially-produced-chemicals-causing-problems-animals-deep-sea-crustaceans-contain-higher-concentrations-chemicals-animals-coastal-waters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetsave.com\/articles\/even-10000-meters-sea-industrially-produced-chemicals-causing-problems-animals-deep-sea-crustaceans-contain-higher-concentrations-chemicals-animals-coastal-waters\/","title":{"rendered":"Even 10,000 Meters Under The Sea, Industrially Produced Chemicals Are Causing Problems For Animals — Deep-Sea Crustaceans Contain Higher Concentrations Of Man-Made Chemicals Than Animals In Coastal Waters"},"content":{"rendered":"

Very high levels of man-made pollutants and toxic chemicals — including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) — have been found in animals living in some of he deepest oceanic trenches in the world, according to brand new as yet unpublished research.<\/p>\n

The work involved the collection of small shrimp-like creatures, including Hirondellea gigas<\/em> (shown), from the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific Ocean, and from the Kermadec Trench near New Zealand — at depths of 7,000 to 10,000 meters. The Mariana Trench is of course actually the deepest trench in the world — meaning that man-made persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are now accumulating en masses even in the most remote parts of the ocean.<\/p>\n

The collections were part of a 2014 US National Science Foundation sponsored research program focused on deep-sea ecosystems.<\/p>\n

\"Amphipod<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe often think deep-sea trenches are remote and pristine, untouched by humans,\u201d commented Alan Jamieson, a deep-ocean researcher at the University of Aberdeen, UK. But the research shows clearly that that simply isn’t the case. A great deal of earlier research conducted in less-remote parts of the ocean painted a similar picture though — with the great prevalence of plastic debris on the ocean floor being a common finding.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really surprising to find pollutants so deep in the ocean at such high concentrations,\u201d stated Jeffrey Drazen, a marine ecologist at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu.<\/p>\n

An article on the findings published in Nature<\/a><\/em> provides more, stating that in “both trenches, the amphipods contained polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) — used to make plastics and as anti-fouling agents to stop barnacles growing on ships’ hulls — and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), which are used as flame retardants. Both chemicals are man-made and belong to a category of carbon-based compounds called persistent organic pollutants (POPs) because they are hard to break down. Production of PCBs — which are carcinogens — has been banned in many countries since the late 1970s; PBDEs, which animal studies suggest may disrupt hormone systems and interfere with neural development, are only now being phased out.”<\/p>\n

The part that’s particularly interesting though is that the concentrations of PCBs in the amphipods studied that came from the Mariana Trench were incredibly high — somehow even 15 times higher than those collected from the Kermadec Trench.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s even higher than in the estuaries of two of the most polluted rivers — the Pearl River and the Liao River — in China,\u201d stated Jamieson.<\/strong><\/p>\n