2,000-foot-long plastic catcher released for easy cleaning of garbage from the Grand Pacific | Smart News

Halfway between Hawaii and California, a huge mound of garbage measuring twice the size of Texas floats in the Pacific, threatening the marine ecosystem and gradually accumulating artificial debris. This plastic island, better known as Garbage Patch of the Great Pacific (GPGB), is made up of about 1.8 trillion pieces of trash and shows no signs of breakage.

But the Cleaning the ocean The project, an ambitious $ 20 million campaign by Dutch inventor Boyan Slat, aims to stop the task by trapping incriminated debris in a 2,000-foot boom or floating barrier. Slat and his team launched a test of their device Saturday, reports Christina Caron The New York Times, and if all goes well, they will move to the GPGB in mid-October.

according to Science News"Carolyn Gramling," System 001 "from Ocean Cleanup, consists of a series of U-shaped unmoored arrows equipped with a 10-foot underwater skirt, or mesh-like mesh material. In theory, the device should act as an artificial shoreline, collecting plastic particles drifting with the currents of the Pacific. Once significant quantities of waste are accumulated in the system, support vessels will transport the waste to onshore recycling complexes.

USA todayElizabeth Weise noted that the 001 system is the pilot vessel for a fleet of 60 aircraft. The device is equipped with solar-powered lights and an anti-collision system to prevent accidents with passing ships. sensors and satellites. If the test proves effective, Ocean Cleanup hopes to launch its full fleet and, according to Gramling, remove 50% of the GPGB's plastic waste over the next five years and 90% by 2040.

BBC NewsDavid Shukman writes that Ocean Cleanup's 24-year-old brain, Slat, has been an advocate for ocean conservation since he went swimming in a Greek sea seven years ago and contained more plastic than fish . At the time, Slat was just a teenager with a seemingly extravagant, though imaginative, idea of ​​saving the oceans, but he eventually found investors, including the Dutch government, and engineers eager to give life to his vision.

Lonneke Holierhoek, chief operating officer of Ocean Cleanup, tells Shukman that the team feels "in a hurry". [take action], all this plastic will start to break down into smaller and smaller pieces – and the smaller the pieces, the more harmful it is … and more difficult to extract from the marine environment [they become]. "

However, Slat's project has attracted a lot of criticism from scientists who say the scheme would endanger marine wildlife and exacerbate existing problems.

In a blog post written for South fried science, David Shiffman highlights the main concerns about Ocean Cleanup, citing a lack of understanding of the issues at stake (for example, much of the plastic waste that litters the oceans is "small and well dispersed", which means that structural integrity inadequate to cause system failure and create additional ocean waste, and an inability to distinguish between plastic and living.

Shiffman surveyed 15 ocean pollution experts and found that more than a quarter felt the project was a "bad idea with little or no cash value". None of the experts thought that Ocean Cleanup The majority argued that preventing the plastic from entering the ocean would be a more effective goal than trying to remove the existing plastic. .

BBC NewsShukman notes that all objects drifting in the ocean end up being covered with seaweed, which attracts plankton and, consequently, larger fish. George Leonard, chief scientist at Ocean Conservancy, further explains The New York TimesCaron that "every kind of structure in the open sea … acts as a device for aggregating fish", essentially attracting unsuspecting marine animals to their death.

In his interview with Shukman, Ocean Cleanup's Holierhoek challenged these skeptics by citing an independent environmental study that showed that the impact of these "fish aggregating devices" could be minimized by generating noise to frighten fish.

Holierhoek also says South fried scienceShiffman, a nearby ship will monitor the aircraft's interactions with marine life. In addition to being brightly colored to allow animals to see it, System 001 features a "flow system" that should gently dislodge animals from the path of the plastic collector.

Despite the skepticism directed towards his invention, Slat remains optimistic. While recognizing "fully" that Ocean Cleanup is not the definitive solution to plastic pollution, he notes that the plastic that is currently scattering the waters of the Earth will not disappear on its own.

As Slat concludes, "we have to clean it up at some point and, in fact, I would say the sooner the better".

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