Ocean plastic-trapping ‘artificial coastline’ to depart from Victoria

The Ocean Cleanup project’s latest iteration of plastic-collecting technology, the System 002, will leave Victoria and head to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. (Ocean Cleanup/ Twitter) A non-profit organization’s project will launch from Victoria’s coast in about two weeks as it departs to one of the most densely concentrated collections of garbage on the seas. The Ocean Cleanup project announced on July 13 that it’ll pioneer its latest iteration of plastic-collecting technology, the System 002, when it leaves Victoria and heads to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The concept is to drag a tensioned, 800-metre long “artificial coastline” – nicknamed Jenny – through areas of the ocean where plastics pool together in massive amounts. Two vessels will pull the System 002 at each tip of the U-shaped flexible barrier as it tries to corral the floating plastics and collect them in a “retention zone.” The ships use computer models to navigate towards areas where the highest concentration of plastics – which Ocean Cleanup calls “natural hotspots” – can be collected. The ships only move at about 0.75 metres per second, but will try maximizing the cleanup’s efficiency by navigating through the mapped hotspots, such as the Great Pacific Garbage […]

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