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Researchers used helicopters to land on ice floes and collect samples during an 18-day icebreaker expedition through the Northwest Passage, the route connecting the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.
The Northwest Passage Project primarily focuses on investigating the impact of anthropogenic climate change on the Arctic, the planet's cooling system, which is threatened by the rapid disappearance of summer sea ice.
"We spent weeks searching for ancient white sea ice floating in the middle of the ocean. When we looked closely at it, we discovered visible contaminants with the right tools. We were quite surprised," said Jacob Strock, a researcher at the University of Rhode Island who conducted the initial analysis of the cores.
Microplastic particles have infiltrated the water sources of the most remote places on the planet.
Strock and colleagues found the material trapped in ice taken from Lancaster Sound, an isolated stretch of water in the Canadian Arctic, which they believe may be relatively sheltered from drifting plastic pollution.
The research team extracted 18 ice cores, each up to 2 meters long, from four locations and discovered visible plastic particles and fibers of various shapes and sizes.
Pollution will directly affect the lives of bears.
The United Nations estimates that 100 million tons of plastic have been dumped into the oceans to date. Once again, microplastics demonstrate that the waste problem has reached alarming levels.
