For the first time in the history of human exploration, scientists have found litter is now arriving before man himself. A 10-year large-scale seafloor survey off the European coast has found the widespread presence of bottles, plastic bags, fishing nets and other types of human litter at all sample locations, many previously unvisited. One researcher from the international study team commented: “Most of the deep sea remains unexplored by humans, and these are our first visits to many of these sites, but we were shocked to find that our rubbish has got there before us.”