Plastic Aquatic
Understanding
the complexity of detection and collection of marine litter at sea by bringing
scientists, technology makers and journalists into the Gyres.
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General: Plastic Aquatic is a project led by
DNV GL in Norway to present a concept vessel enabling more insight and testing
of marine litter detection and collection technologies in the Open Ocean.
How: OCP members have collaborated with DNV GL to identify key technology necessary to detect and study marine litter at sea. Numerical simulations are used to find the areas where debris are more likely to converge and high definition satellite images are used to improve the simulation predictions. The human eye still being the best sensor for such missions, visual observations are used to confirm or not the presence of marine litter. The observation range of the human eye is however greatly improved by using video cameras carried by air balloons, autonomous low weight copters and sailing robots. A research vessel was designed to carry, deploy and maintain all this equipment, as well as a large crew of scientists, technology makers and journalists for up to 3 months at sea. Status: Plastic Aquatic is used to communicate the need for the different public and private sectors to collaborate on education and technology development to lessen the pollution of marine litter. Next Open Task: Contribute to qualify new technology for marine litter detection. The project was presented at the NorShipping conference in Oslo in June 2013. |
With permission from DNV GL - copyright DNV GL AS
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