Last summer while visiting family in Bogotá, Colombia, a city located 9,000 feet above sea level in the Andes, I noticed more plastics than during my visit a decade ago. I also visited my city of birth, Santa Marta, a port city on the Colombian Caribbean coast. Although these two cities are 600 miles apart and have wildly different climates, social justice in Bogotá is deeply interconnected to plastic pollution in the Caribbean.
Santa Marta is just 15 miles from La Ciénaga Grande, a coastal wetland slightly larger than Rhode Island that is recognized as the most productive estuarine system in the world. La Ciénaga and its mangrove forest are home to 130 fish species and 200 bird species, among other wildlife. La Ciénaga and its incredible diversity are fed by the warm embrace of the Caribbean Sea and the Magdalena River, a 956-mile-long river that drains Colombia from south to north.
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Rivers and waterways are conduits for water, nutrients, sediment and life. Unfortunately, they have also become conduits for plastic pollution, carrying waste into the ocean from places where waste management systems are overwhelmed with the amount of plastic being produced or where illegal dumping occurs. Sadly, the Magdalena is no different, transporting Bogotá’s plastic waste footprint and that of 34 million people across its basin into the Ciénaga and the Caribbean.
During my trip, I also witnessed part of the system that deals with this massive amount of plastic waste. I saw human-powered carts carrying vast amounts of recyclable materials. Informal sector waste collectors in Colombia and across the globe help fulfill our mission to protect the ocean from one of today’s greatest global challenges, plastic pollution. According to Ocean Conservancy’s local partner Compromiso Empresarial para el Reciclaje (CEMPRE), by the end of their daily journey, each of these unrecognized environmentalists carry up to 330 pounds of recyclable materials on their backs. In Colombia alone, these unsung heroes recover at least 1.2 billion pounds of plastics and recyclable materials from the waste stream every year, preventing many of those materials from entering landfills and the ocean.
In Bogota’s cloud forest climate, these environmental stewards often walk city streets in the rain with temperatures that average just 57 degrees Fahrenheit. In Santa Marta’s coastal climate, they often work in muggy conditions under the beating sun in temperatures north of 90 degrees Fahrenheit. They work without formal contracts, minimum wage, overtime, health insurance or any minimal health and safety standards. Their hope at the beginning of each shift is to be able to collect enough recyclable materials to bring home between $2 and $16 per day (based on research done by CEMPRE) to provide for their families.
Because of fossil-fuel subsidies, it is currently cheaper to make plastics from crude oil than from recycled plastic. In 2022, the 20 biggest economies in the world provided fossil-fuel subsidies amounting to U.S. $1.4 trillion despite committing to phasing out fossil fuel two years ago. The work of informal sector waste collectors like those in Bogotá and Santa Marta, and across the globe, is local, but that doesn’t mean they are isolated from global forces. Cheaper virgin plastic decreases the demand for recycled plastic. As demand for recycled plastic decreases, what these workers get paid per pound also decreases, affecting their daily well-being.
Recognizing the contribution of informal sector waste collectors in protecting the ocean and improving material circularity is why Ocean Conservancy established a partnership with CEMPRE and the Inclusive Waste Recycling Consortium in Colombia. Since 2021, more than 26 informal recycling cooperatives have been supported with training on health, safety, labor laws and management, as well as enhanced income opportunities through this partnership. These trainings, in combination with actions to leverage, formalize and dynamize the commercialization of material under the Extended Producer Responsibility framework, have enabled the cooperatives to enter the Colombian government formalization process. As a result, the government will recognize them as service providers, providing additional income—a small but important step in pursuing a more just system.
I moved out of Colombia in 2000 to look for a place to further my education; a series of fortuitous events resulted in my living in the United States. My only certainty when I left home was that wherever I ended up, I wanted eventually to contribute to conservation in Colombia. I have been looking for this opportunity ever since. When I started my job at Ocean Conservancy in February 2023, I was not yet aware of the partnerships in Colombia, but soon learned the opportunity I had been seeking was here. From conversations with informal waste collectors, I learned about how Ocean Conservancy’s involvement in advancing social justice issues (e.g., trainings on health, safety and labor laws) contributes to the individual empowerment of these workers and dignifies their work. From them, I learned the impact of working on plastic pollution through a justice lens supports a motivated workforce that continues to keep plastics out of the ocean from places as far away as the Andes.
Pushing for a decrease in plastic production, especially here in the United States where much of it is produced, will cut the amount of plastic that could enter the ocean, as well as improve air and water quality in communities around petrochemical facilities. At the same time, dignifying the labor of informal sector waste collectors across the globe contributes to less plastic entering the ocean and therefore a healthier ocean. Ocean Conservancy is advocating for the inclusion of informal sector waste collectors in the negotiations for a global plastics treaty (currently underway). We are also advocating for a reduction in plastic production overall. I hope you can join us to continue advocating for the inclusion of justice as the lens through which conservation is conducted.
The post Improved Working Conditions for Recyclers Also Benefit Ocean Health appeared first on Ocean Conservancy.
https://oceanconservancy.org/blog/2024/01/08/improved-working-conditions-recyclers-benefit-ocean-health/
Ocean Acidification
Dr Heidarzadeh’s TV interview with SkyNews on the massive M7.7 Panama earthquake on 9 October 2026
Dr Heidarzadeh’s TV interview with SkyNews on the massive M7.7 Panama earthquake on 9 October 2026. Click here for the full story.
Dr Heidarzadeh’s TV interview with SkyNews on the massive M7.7 Panama earthquake on 9 October 2026
Our ocean is an incredibly vast and mysterious place. And there is no place where that is more evident than the deepest ocean area in the world: the legendary Mariana Trench. Located east of the Philippines, the Mariana Trench lies in the Mariana Archipelago in the western portion of the North Pacific. The greater area of the Mariana Trench Marine National Monument is made up of more than 95,000 square miles of ocean. Beneath these waters lie incredibly complex aggregations of submerged islands and volcanoes … and of course, an astoundingly massive trench.
Dive in with us to have your biggest questions answered about the famed Mariana Trench.
How deep is the Mariana Trench?
The deepest part of the Mariana Trench, known as Challenger Deep, is almost 36,000 feet below the ocean’s surface. For context, Mount Everest is about 29,000 feet above sea level, so the Mariana Trench is about 7,000 feet deeper than Mount Everest is tall. For one more comparison, the RMS Titanic lies at a depth of about 12,500 feet below sea level. The Challenger Deep is in waters nearly three times deeper than this ship’s final resting place.
Due to its enormous size, the Mariana Trench has at times been affectionately nicknamed the Grand Canyon of the ocean. This is certainly a picturesque image, but don’t let the mammoth size of this U.S. national terrestrial park fool you into thinking the Mariana Trench matches its size. The trench’s footprint is estimated to be 120 times larger than the Grand Canyon’s, and to reach the bottom of Challenger Deep, you’d need to descend through almost six Grand Canyons stacked on top of each other before you’d reach the seafloor.
Oh … and did we mention it’s five times wider than it is deep? It’s about 43 miles wide!
What is Challenger Deep, and how long would it take to reach it?
Challenger Deep is the deepest point of the Mariana Trench. Fewer than 30 people have ever journeyed to this area. The trek below the surface is long, dark and time-consuming, and it’s not an expedition considered lightly by scientists and explorers.
The first people to descend into the depths of this area in 1960 were oceanographers Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh, and it took them close to five hours to reach Challenger Deep. Since then, more advanced submersibles have been created, but it still takes two to four hours for modern vessels to reach such depths. For example, explorer and filmmaker James Cameron reached the seafloor in a little more than 2.5 hours in the first documented solo submarine dive to the area, and it took oceanographer Dr. Dawn Wright about four hours in 2022. It is crucial that these submersibles descend slowly and steadily beneath the surface, as the immense water pressure compounds with every mile a submersible descends. Speaking of pressure …
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What is the water pressure at the bottom of the Mariana Trench?
If you thought the depth of the Mariana Trench was its only jaw-dropping feature, think again. Water pressure is one of the most important factors affecting deep-sea life. In the ocean, pressure increases by one atmosphere for every 33 feet (10 meters) of depth. One atmosphere (a unit of measurement for pressure equivalent to average air pressure at sea level) is equal to about 14.7 pounds per square inch (PSI), which is the approximate standard atmospheric pressure at sea level. If you were to convert atmospheric pressure into weight, one atmosphere is about the weight of a bowling ball. Stay with me, friends.
If a vessel were to dive 2,000 feet below the surface, the pressure would equal that of 60 bowling balls stacked atop every square inch of that submersible. But 60 bowling balls is simply nothing compared to the pressure in the Mariana Trench. The atmospheric pressure at the depths of Challenger Deep is equal to about 16,000 PSI. That pressure is about the same as the weight of an entire full-grown elephant on every square inch of a submersible!
Need a more extreme comparison? If a human were to be placed at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the pressure would be equal to that of 50 jumbo jets piled on top of a person!
Do any animals live in the Mariana Trench?
The depths of the Mariana Trench come with immense pressure and extreme darkness, but somehow, life finds a way to survive. Organisms that live at an extreme depth, like that of Challenger Deep, have to be highly adapted to low temperatures (typically just above freezing), high pressure and virtually no light at all.
Species found in the depths of the Mariana Trench might look vastly different from animals from other ocean depths because their anatomy has been refined to thrive in harsh conditions. At such great depths, these animals typically depend on chemosynthesis (using nutrient-rich waters being pumped out of hydrothermal vents) or descending detritus (dead matter that has fallen from higher parts of the ocean) for food, such as whale falls. Just a handful of these animals include species of octopuses and squids, sea cucumbers, amphipods, sea jellies, shrimp, sea worms and some wild-looking fish!
In 2025, more than 7,000 new species were discovered in the Mariana Trench, including the hadal snailfish (Pseudoliparis swirei). This is the deepest-dwelling fish currently known to science. Now, the fish has been dubbed “the Mariana snailfish.”
How was the Mariana Trench formed?
The process by which the Mariana Trench was created is a geologically fascinating one known as subduction. On the Earth’s surface, there are thin plates that cover the planet’s mantle, which is made of molten rock. If two of these plates collide, one pushes down into the Earth’s mantle while the other is pushed over the bottom plate. When this happens, a trench is formed from the drag of the bottom plate. This process can sometimes create incredibly strong earthquakes. The plates that forged the Mariana Trench’s creation are estimated to be up to approximately 180 million years old.
This trench was unknown to scientists until 1875. It was then that a team of explorers on the HMS Challenger measured the depth of the sea by simply lowering a weighted rope into the water. They were baffled when they measured that first portion of the seafloor to be five miles below the surface. And so was born the origin of some of the most daring deep-sea explorations known to mankind to date.
Is the Mariana Trench protected?
The Mariana Trench is in waters off Guam and the Mariana Islands. The region is protected from some human activities under its status as a marine monument. The creation of the Mariana Trench Marine National Monument signified that international, national and local leaders all recognize the importance of protecting this area.
However, just because the region is protected does not mean it’s not vulnerable to modern threats to ocean health. Plastic bags have been spotted in the Mariana Trench during several expeditions, highlighting the far-reaching impact of the marine debris problem. No corner of our ocean is safe from the ever-present threat of plastic pollution. The reality of a changing climate makes the future well-being of wondrous places like the Mariana Trench uncertain. What’s more: More than 70% of the global ocean has yet to be mapped. And what we don’t yet know about, we cannot wisely work to protect.
It’s up to us to work together to defend our ocean, from the sandy shores of our favorite beaches to the deepest, darkest parts of the sea. Together, we can work to protect our ocean as a whole, which ultimately helps protect treasured places like Challenger Deep.
Find out how you can join Ocean Conservancy’s wave of momentum to secure a healthy ocean and a thriving planet, forever and for everyone!
The post The Mysteries of the Mariana Trench appeared first on Ocean Conservancy.
Intro
At the western tip of Luzon, which is the biggest island of the Philippines, lies the small coastal town of Bolinao. Tourists seldom find their way here as it takes around seven hours to get here by bus from Manila. Still, you can spot foreigners walking around every now and then, but they really stand out among the Filipinos. A reason for their presence is often that they study or work at the Bolinao Marine Laboratory (BML), which belongs to the University of the Philippines (UP). It is one of the seven research institutions participating in the GAME project 2026. Every year, GAME brings together Master’s students from all over the world to experience different cultures and conduct globally replicated experiments in marine ecology.
