There are many strange and scary creatures living in the water, but one finding in particular has to serve as a warning to almost all people on the planet.

The Mariana Trench, one of the ocean’s deepest regions, is where the unsettling discovery was uncovered.

The lowest point on Earth is located far below the surface of the ocean, approximately 11 kilometers (seven miles) deep, close to the little island of Guam and situated between Hawaii and the Philippines.

According to scientists, reaching the ocean’s lowest point is equally as challenging as traveling into space.

In April 2019, Victor Vescovo was among the few people who descended to the Mariana Trench’s lowest point.

While on his trip, Vescovo, operating in a Triton 36000/2 submarine designed to endure high pressure, set a new record depth of 10.9 kilometers.

It wouldn’t be shocking to find anything unexpected considering how deep the tunnel is.

But given that it’s in the water, one would assume that the finding would entail a strange plant or marine animal.

Admittedly, Vescovo did find some of that in the shape of a pink snailfish, colorful outcrops, and a kind of crab that had not been identified before, but he also discovered something that wasn’t supposed to be there.

Vescovo made the startling discovery that he had found lolly wrappers—more precisely, a plastic shopping bag.

Just to be clear, this garbage was discovered at the lowest point on Earth.

According to Eric Galbraith, an ocean biochemist at Barcelona’s Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies, “We always had this sense that there was this part of the planet that was beyond, that was untouched by human action.” This is a frightening discovery. It was true once. And it’s not true anymore.

Dr. Deo Onda, a microbial oceanologist from the University of the Philippines Marine Science Institute, made a similarly disheartening discovery when he plunged into the Philippines Trench’s Emden Deep.

Despite the Philippine Trench’s depth, pollution from humans has managed to get into it. What about habitats that are shallower, like seagrass beds and coral reefs? The Inquirer was notified by Onda.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if I got confused if I was in Manila Bay or the Philippine Trench if we don’t do anything.”

Man-made plastics have “contaminated the most remote and deepest places on the planet,” according to study conducted in 2018 by Chinese scientists at the Institute of Deep Sea Science and Engineering.