what scientists at newcastle university have found is that there are chemicals inside that were bannedr alan jamieson joins us, what does that mean for u5? joins us, what does that mean for us? it means some of the most remote marine habitats on earth are contaminated with chemicals entirely man—made, which i think is quite a sad story really. what kind of chemicals are you talking about? we found chemicals that were introduced in the 19305 and 405 for various industrial applications. they were accidentally released but eventually when it was realised they would never degrade in nature, they were banned in the 19705. unfortunately they don't ever disappear, they keep passing from animal to animal, going through the food web. in the deep sea, the deep sea derives its food and energy from the surface layers. it all ultimately sinks. once it sinks to the deep sea there is nowhere left for it to go so it accumulates. what else has been found on the ocean bed. we've seen things like beer cans at 7000 metres, a raincoat at 10,000 metres. the japanese have seen a lot of litter around japan. w