The Arctic is “pervasively” polluted by microplastic fibres that most likely come from the washing of synthetic clothes by people in Europe and North America, research has found. The most comprehensive study to date found the microplastics in 96 of 97 sea water samples taken from across the polar region. More than 92% of the microplastics were fibres, and 73% of these were made of polyester and were the same width and colours as those used in.
is a new challenge, which is silt, the silt on the ocean floor here, some 2.8 miles deep. tell me what kind of challenges that will pose. yeah, so, in some ways, it s a good sign that there is a lot of silt down there, because that means that, actually, the currents aren t that strong. what this silt is, it s essentially dead plankton. it s the carcasses of everything that lived above it, including, for instance, things also like fish poo. fish poo slowly falling down through the ocean and at the end ending up on the ocean floor. and because the currents aren t very strong, it will actually get thicker and thicker and thicker. this layer can easily be 20 meters in some regions of the ocean. all right, erik van sebille, giving us something new to think about yet in the search for flight 370. i don t think there s a single question we could ask this man he would not have the answer to. i know. really appreciate you being here with us this morning. thanks, erik, from sydney.
there, and i don t aid the investigation by being there. what being here in my hometown, in my home has helped do is to not get overwhelmed by the sea of emotion and anger and frustration that is quite natural when we are assembled together and we have our own stories and our own sorrow that simply doesn t go away. pictures there of his wife. narendran says he remembers his wife, chandrika, as strong and remains a source of joy and pride for him. more ahead on the encouraging signs of the search for flight 370. we ll talk to erik van sebille, about ten minutes away. meanwhile, happening right now, the olympic hero accused of murder back on the witness stand. oscar pistorius is just getting grilled this morning by prosecutors as he tries to
ever to finding this missing malaysian airlines flight 370? the search area in the indian ocean this morning has narrowed after two new signals were detected. erik van sebille is an oceanographer at the university of new south wales. he joins us now via skype from sydney, australia. good morning. it is a long-distance connection this morning. thank you so much for being with us. at this point, erik, where do you see the search going? they ve now detected four separate pings from what they believe to be the black boxes. they ve got the hms echo, a second ship coming up to this region to help. what do you think the next key step is? well, i think these are significant developments in this story, of course. and i think that the next step is to further narrow down the search area. the search area, even though it is smaller than it was a few weeks ago, it is still pretty big, and it is so big that you can t just get a submarine down there and scour the entire area.
everything straight underneath us, but they can look around them, to each side and in front of them. reporter: so, obviously, some of the most sophisticated sonar technology in the world being used in the search zone right now, about 1,000 miles from where we are, poppy. nonetheless, you get a sense of the type of screens that these technicians, these skilled operators are going to be looking at as they do this 24/7 operation. and we know they have a submarine and then they have two big ships that are pulling that equipment, that locator equipment, you know, deep, deep in the ocean. you know, it s interesting. i was listening to erik van sebille, who is an oceanographer we ve had on the show over the past few weeks, and he was saying, you know, these currents are so huge and they re nothing like a highway that would drive debris in one direction. they are churning constantly, throwing, you know, throwing anything that may be out there all around, making it that much more challengin