An international scientific expedition studying the seabed off the coast of Antarctica revealed that traces of human activity can be found even in a place as inhospitable as this, deep below the icy waters surrounding the frozen continent.
As the Daily Express points out, researchers revealed their initial findings via a documentary on YouTube, even as their mission was still ongoing.
And when the team deployed sophisticated surveillance equipment beneath the waves to survey the subaquatic life, with the documentary’s narrator noting that this whole process is "like fishing in a margarita," they made a somewhat unexpected and possibly unwelcome discovery.
"Despite the pristine nature of this remote ocean, the imaging system shows human intruders: the stills camera snaps a beer bottle. And commercial fishing activity leaves its mark in the form of a trawler’s longline," the narrator said, explaining that commercial fishing vessels cast their "deadly longlines" in these waters when the weather allows.
The documentary notes, however, that despite these activities, the local population of sea bass remains fairly untouched.