Victor Vescov descended 11 km (7 miles) discovering new sea creatures and a plastic bag. Victor and his team made 5 dives and deployed robotic landers to explore the seafloor. They discovered 4 new species of prawn-like crustaceans, pink snailfish, and a spoon worm. They collected samples of rock from the seafloor and saw rocky outcrops. They also saw humanity’s impact on earth with the amount of plastic waste on the seafloor (7 miles down!). Millions of tons of plastic enter the ocean each year, scientists are still learning where the plastic waste goes. Scientists will test samples from the sea creatures found looking for microplastics.
Deep sea trenches are one of the last remaining frontiers on the planet. There is evidence the deep sea trenches are carbon sinks helping regulate Earth’s climate and chemistry.