Although the vast majority of the earth's surface area is ocean, exploring it is much more difficult than exploring areas such as deserts, the gobi desert, the north and south poles. Because we humans are not inherently good divers, without any equipment, even good swimmers can only stay in shallow waters for a short time and cannot penetrate the depths of the ocean. Simply diving in shallow waters will not help us to explore the oceans. Because around 84% of the earth's oceans are deeper than 2,000 metres, with the deepest depths reaching tens of thousands of metres, even with advanced submersibles it is difficult to reach the depths of 10,000 metres, and very few people are able to dive to the depths of the oceans. As the depth of the ocean increases, the pressure increases and the temperature and light levels decrease, making it increasingly difficult to dive.
So there is a great deal of secrecy hidden in the depths of the ocean. But with the advent of technology, mankind has now begun to explore the universe and the oceans more and more, and with the help of advanced submersibles, more and more people have the opportunity to dive thousands of metres into the deep sea to carry out research. It is also with the arrival of our human race that we have discovered that something has actually existed in the depths of the ocean that should not have existed in the first place, and these are worrying situations.
Humans reach the 8,919m deep yap trench for the first time
When it comes to the trench, many of our friends may associate it with the marianas trench, because it is the deepest known trench on earth. Not many people may know about the second deepest trench or the third deepest trench, just like everyone knows that the highest mountain is mount everest, not necessarily knowing which is the second highest peak.
The yap trench, located on the yap ridge and the eastern side of the yap archipelago, is not as deep as the marianas trench, but it is still high on the list of deepest trenches. Like the marianas trench, the yap trench has rarely been reached, but in late 2021, humans reached the bottom of the 8,919m abyss in the yap trench for the first time.
During the second leg of china's 21st scientific research voyage, which ended on 5 december 2021, the all-seas deep manned submersible kampf made 23 dives, six of which exceeded 10,000 metres, in addition to reaching the in addition to reaching the abyss of the mariana trench, it also made the first human dive to an unknown depth of 8,919 metres in the yap trench. During this time, scientists collected and processed more than 200 samples from the abyss, including water bodies, sediments and other rocks and marine life. Although the environment at the depths of the ocean is indeed harsh, many creatures were still found at the nearly 10,000-metre abyss, including sea cucumbers, starfish, anemones, sponges and other macro-organisms, as well as an abundance of micro-organisms, suggesting that this is not a no-go area for life, but arguably for humans.
In addition to the discovery of marine life, scientists have also found that at nearly 10,000 metres deep the abyss has been affected by our human presence and some rubbish that should not be there has appeared at 10,000 metres deep. This is something that we might have expected and not expected. It is unexpected because scientists have previously found large amounts of human-made rubbish in some ocean depths; it is unexpected because we did not expect the human impact to be so far-reaching.
Some of you may think that with such a large area of ocean and the depths of the ocean being off-limits to us humans, would it not be better to use these off-limits areas as a disposal site for rubbish? In the long run, discharging this rubbish into the ocean will eventually affect us humans ourselves.
Because the ocean has a complex ecosystem, also various microorganisms, plankton, fish and other organisms, they form a stable food chain, with energy flowing from the lower plankton to the higher fish, and eventually some of that energy will flow to us humans. And that rubbish (especially plastic particles) is indigestible, meaning that once the fish have eaten some of it, it may make its way up the food chain to us humans. It has been shown that plastic particles are already present in our bodies.
Microplastics found in human blood for the first time
According to a research paper published in the prestigious academic journal international journal of the environment, dutch scientists claim to have detected for the first time plastic particles in human blood, which may travel around our bodies and may also stay in certain organs. In the study, researchers were given 22 blood samples from anonymous donors and found plastic particles in 17 of the samples. This means that plastic particles were found in 77% of the blood samples. The amount of plastic particles varied from blood sample to blood sample, with 50% of the blood samples containing polyethylene terephthalate (pet), which is used to make beverage bottles, a third of the blood samples containing polystyrene (ps), which is used to make food packaging, and a quarter of the blood samples containing polyethylene (pe), which is used to make plastic bags. From this study, it appears that humans are in fact already 'contaminated' with plastic particles. However, as far as the research goes, it is not yet clear what effect these plastic particles have on our bodies.
Now that the impact of humans on the planet has reached nearly 10,000 metres into the oceans, and plastic particles have been found in our bodies that should not be there, these studies are a wake-up call that if the problem of waste disposal is not properly addressed, more waste could be sent into the oceans and even directly into our bodies in the future. This is something that deserves our attention.