Sea creatures SEVEN miles down are eating plastic

SEA creatures in the deepest place on Earth have been found with plastic in their stomachs.

Tiny crustaceans almost seven miles down in the darkest depths of the Pacific Ocean are eating plastic, say scientists.

The finding now means that nothing living in the world’s seas remains untouched by manmade rubbish.

Every creature sampled at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, in the Pacific, had swallowed microscopic plastic fragments including nylon, polyethylene and polyvinyls similar to PVC.

The deepest point of the Trench, Challenger Deep is 6.7 miles down. Dr Alan Jamieson, from Newcastle University, who led the study, called the results ‘immediate and startling’.

He said: ‘The deep sea is not only the ultimate sink for any material that descends from the surface, but it is also inhabited by organisms well adapted to a low-food environment and these will often eat just about anything.’

The study, accepted for publication but not yet published, took samples of 90 individual crustaceans from the trenches which span the entire Pacific Ocean.

Dr Jamieson added: ‘We are using these samples to make a poignant statement about mankind’s legacy.’

An estimated 300million tonnes of plastic litters the oceans, with more than five trillion plastic pieces weighing over 250,000 tons floating on the surface.