If you can remember, a few months ago, The Ocean Cleanup Project, pulled its plastic litter collecting system from the Pacific Ocean after it was discovered that it was not functioning as designed. Currently, there is only one array out in the Pacific working to collect trash and feedback, before a fleet of 60 is to be launched to work on cleaning up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
From Juan Hernandez for The Inertia:
“This week, after just four months of designing, building, and testing improvements, Boyan Slat’s 2,000-foot-long floating array has been sent back out to sea. “Time to put it to the test,” the Cleanup announced on Twitter.
The new system, named System 001B, has a parachute-like sea anchor designed to slow the system down. Whereas System001 was overflowing with trash it collected — eventually leading to a break at the end of the floating boom — “at low speed, [the parachute sea anchor] performed as planned with satisfactory results.”
The new system, named System 001B, has a parachute-like sea anchor designed to slow the system down. Whereas System001 was overflowing with trash it collected — eventually leading to a break at the end of the floating boom — ‘at low speed, [the parachute sea anchor] performed as planned with satisfactory results.’
In the months since System 001’s repairs began, Slat has been pretty specific with followers about the Cleanup’s progress via an ongoing and regularly-updated blog. Last month he detailed the intended upgrades and improvements along with what System 001’s failures had taught them, pointing out that a June relaunch was in the works. That relaunch was only announced with a tweet, but judging by the Ocean Cleanup’s maintenance of the blog in the past, a detailed update is probably on the way.”
Source: The Inertia. ABC News.
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