Extreme Amount Of Microplastics Found In Sargasso Sea
CAMEROTA: A remote body of water in the North Atlantic is on the brink of devastation. The Sargasso Sea is a natural habitat for many species of turtles and fish, yet it's fragile ecosystem faces a serious threat from a problem we are all guilty of.</s>BERMAN: CNN senior international correspondent Arwa Damon has this story -- Arwa.</s>ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. And, you know, I thought I knew about plastic pollution but it wasn't until we got out there into the water that I began to really understand just how serious and dangerous it is. And it's not just dangerous to the wildlife but to us as well.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I see more there.</s>DAMON (voice-over): It is humbling to be out in the deep blue, hundreds of miles from land. We're in the Sargasso Sea, named after Sargasso, a free-floating seaweed dubbed the Atlantic Golden Rainforest. Under the cloud-like mats there is an unexpected array of biodiversity. But along with our awe is also the shocking realization of what we are doing to it.</s>DAMON (on camera): In one little chunk. Look at all that.</s>DAMON (voice-over): There are also tinier pieces, hard to see, but everywhere.</s>DAMON (on camera): You find little pieces like this throughout. I have to say I was quite struck by the pieces that you actually can see and how much of it is located down there.</s>DAMON (voice-over): Each time we got into the water we found countless plastic pieces, all different shapes and sizes. Most plastic is not dumped directly into the ocean. Much of what you see has been discarded on land, traveling thousands of miles and breaking up along the way. The Sargasso Sea in the North Atlantic is the world's only body of water without shores. It's defined by the currents of the North Atlantic gyre -- currents that also carry with them our plastic filth, making it one of the five ocean garbage patches.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think this one is a good one to do first.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Wow, there's a piece of plastic in that.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We got it.</s>DAMON (voice-over): Alexandra Guilick and Nerine Constant are marine biologists.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, these are bite marks like animals taking bites.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Really? Out of the plastic?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah, you can tell these are fish because they are little half circles.</s>DAMON (voice-over): The Sargasso provides a habitat for baby turtles and fish, shrimp, plus hundreds of other marine organisms. In the oceans, degrading plastic becomes even more poisonous as it binds with other manmade chemical pollutants. All that toxicity ends up in the digestive systems of marine life and travels up the food chain, all the way to our dinner plates. Onboard the Esperanza, Amanda Trall (ph) collects water samples, part of a Greenpeace study into microplastics in this remote body of water and its broader campaign for a global oceans treaty.</s>DAMON (on camera): You can see quite a bit of plastic already just when it's in here. Has this been fairly common in most of the samples that have been coming up?</s>CELIA OJEDA, MARINE BIOLOGIST: Yes. In most of the samples there have been something white. There was Sargasso in the sample. We have seen a lot of plastics because I think -- because they get entangled in the Sargasso.</s>DAMON (voice-over): The initial results of this study are alarming. In its samples, Greenpeace found similar or greater concentrations of microplastic to what they found in the notorious Great Pacific Garbage Patch last year.</s>OJEDA: We need to change our water consumption -- our water patterns -- the way we rule the planet, the way we do things.</s>DAMON (on camera): You have a son.</s>OJEDA: Yes.</s>DAMON (on camera): When you see the way things are now are you worried about his future?</s>OJEDA: Yes, I am, a lot -- because I think what -- with this and with climate change, what are we leaving them? It's insane.</s>DAMON (voice-over): Being out this far from land, you can't help but be struck by how interconnected our world is and how destructive we are being to marine ecosystems. And with that, also to ourselves.</s>DAMON: And, Alisyn, the solution, according to conservationists and scientists that we have been speaking to is not just with recycling. Only nine percent of plastic produced has ever actually been recycled. What they say needs to happen is that it needs to be dealt with at the source, and that means that we really need to be pushing companies, corporations, and countries to stop producing single-use plastic because as you can see in that report, it really does affect all of us, Alisyn.</s>CAMEROTA: Oh my gosh, it's so depressing seeing it, Arwa -- really. Now, all of us obviously can do our own little part of not using plastic utensils and not using baggies or just cutting back. I mean, it's gotten to the point when we see your report we have to do something. Thank you so much for opening our eyes to what's happening there in the Sargasso Sea. OK. Meanwhile, Elton John is coming to the defense of the royal family following a visit to his home in France. The music legend is telling the press to leave the Duke and Duchess of Sussex alone. CNN international correspondent Melissa Bell is live in Paris with the latest. So what happened, Melissa?</s>MELISSA BELL, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, this comes in the wake of yet another round of British tabloid criticism of Meghan and Harry in the wake of their summer holiday which involved, according to the British press, too many trips on jets for a couple that put the fight against climate change at the forefront of their agenda -- of their work. And in the wake of that criticism, what we've seen is Elton John really lashing out on Twitter and speaking directly to the very close relationship he'd had, you'll remember, with Harry's mother, Princess Diana. Anyone old enough to remember it -- could remember, Alisyn, can see him at the piano singing "Candle in the Wind" at her funeral. It was to her memory that he referred in a tweet really protecting Meghan and Harry and directly linking the sort of media intrusion that they are victims of to the one that ultimately led, partly, to the death of Princess Diana.</s>BERMAN: All right, Melissa. Melissa Bell for us in Paris. Thank you very much for that. Obviously, the British press has been very tough on the Duke and Duchess.</s>CAMEROTA: Yes. And, of course, they should let -- I mean, we've seen this horror story before and how it ends when you are hounded by the press.</s>BERMAN: I will say in this case, though, it's about policy discussions they've been having and how they're living their life.</s>CAMEROTA: Yes, but I'm -- I mean, sometimes, there are also reports of them trying to be around them. And I think that they've done a good job of shielding their son, thus far, from all of that.</s>BERMAN: All right. This might be the video of the morning and by that, I mean nothing else matters, right? If alligators can climb fences then nothing else matters. This is in Jacksonville, Florida outside a naval air station. And that alligator just climbing the fence -- simply climbing the fence. Why is the fence even there if alligators can climb over it? That's what I ask you. This military base made the point that they have a lot of alligators on the base and that their defense is don't seem to matter to the alligators at all. They don't respect their security measures. A lot of people on Twitter have been weighing in, noting at the Kennedy Space Center -- I don't know if this is true -- the fences are built in a way that they angle out so the alligators can't climb over them.</s>CAMEROTA: OK.</s>BERMAN: Apparently, there are some people aware of the fact that alligators can climb fences.</s>CAMEROTA: OK. Then I'm glad we've solved this problem because you and I have been petrified that there are alligators coming into Hudson Yards right now because if they can climb a fence, they can ride an elevator --</s>BERMAN: That's true.</s>CAMEROTA: -- all right? I mean, that's what I've learned from this --</s>BERMAN: I don't know how they hit the button.</s>CAMEROTA: -- and an escalator.</s>BERMAN: How they hit the button?</s>CAMEROTA: No, that's -- just like that. That one was going up like this on its hind legs and standing. So, I guess they're much better at these things than we knew previously.</s>BERMAN: All right. On a much more serious note, President Trump proudly declared ISIS 100 percent defeated, but a recent suicide bombing raising concerns about the terror group's resurgence. We'll discuss, next.