Nepal attempts record with a Dead Sea of plastic bags

Yahoo – AFP, December 5, 2018

Over 150 volunteers worked for months to collect and sort used plastic bags
from schools and public areas in Nepal (AFP Photo/PRAKASH MATHEMA)

Kathmandu (AFP) - Young Nepalis created a map of the Dead Sea with used plastic bags Wednesday in a bid to set a new international record and raise awareness about the vast volumes polluting the world's oceans.

Volunteers tied 100,000 colourful used plastic bags on a metal grid 20 metres (65 feet) long and five metres (16 feet) tall, shaped like the Dead Sea, on open ground in Kathmandu's city centre.

The record attempt was organised with a slogan "One Dead Sea is enough for us".

"We decided to tie plastic bags and make a sculpture of the Dead Sea to spread awareness over the world to minimise waste of plastic," Surgeon BC of Stem Foundation Nepal, the group that organised the event, told AFP.

Global plastic production has grown rapidly, and is currently more than 400 million tonnes per year.

It is estimated that two to five percent of plastics wind up in the oceans, where much of it breaks down into tiny particles that harm marine life.

"We hope this effort will help to keep seas clean and not let them become another dead sea," he said.

Over 150 volunteers worked for months to collect and sort used plastic bags from schools and public areas.

Among the participants was 20-year-old environment student Prakriti Pandey.

"I had heard news that plastic was found inside a dead whale, so I felt I should join this initiative to spread awareness around the world and in my country," she said.

The current record for the world's largest sculpture of plastic bags was set in April 2012 when over 200 Singaporean volunteers shaped 68,000 plastic bags in the shape of an octopus, according to Guinness World Records.

The Nepalese group said it will now submit its claim with video evidence for a new record to Guinness.

Over one third of Indonesia's coral reefs in bad state: study

Yahoo – AFP, 28 November 2018

Indonesia has some of the world's finest corals but many are also badly damaged

More than a third of Indonesia's coral reefs are in bad condition, scientists said Tuesday, raising concerns about the future of the archipelago's vast marine ecosystem.

The precarious state of the country's coral reefs was revealed after a survey of 1067 sites across the sprawling country of more than 17,000 islands.

Scientists from Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) found that just 6.5 percent Indonesia's coral reefs were in excellent condition, while 36 percent are in bad condition. Some 34 percent in sufficient condition with the rest classifed as being in good condition.

"Anthropogenic factors are having more influence on the condition of corals in Indonesia today," Dr Dirhamsyah, head of the institute's oceanographic research centre, said in a statement.

"The use of coast has increased which can threaten the ecosystem."

Dirhamsyah, who like many Indonesians has only one name, said greater public awareness was needed "for the survival of marine life" in Indonesia.

Indonesia has one of the most extensive coral reef systems in the world and more people live close to reefs than anywhere else on the planet, according to the Coral Reef Alliance.

But the giant living organisms face a number of threats, including man-made climate change, destructive fishing techniques and nutrient and sediment loading.

Indonesia is also the world's second biggest contributor to marine debris after China, producing an estimated 1.29 million metric tons annually.

Conservation group WWF warned last month up to half of the globe's shallow-water reefs, which support a quarter of all marine life, have already been wiped out.

If humanity fails to keep global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels, coral mortality is likely to hit 70-90 percent by the middle of the century, the United Nations warned in a recent report.

Indonesia is part of the Coral Triangle, the most biodiverse marine area on earth which passes through six countries, including the Philippines, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.

Dead fish to power Norwegian cruise liners

Yahoo – AFP, November 26, 2018

Leftover dead fish from Norway's large fishing industry will be mixed with other
organic waste to make a liquified biogas to be used instead of heavy fuel oil, said
Hurtigruten, which runs cruises to the Arctic and Antarctica, among other locations.

Norwegian cruise operator Hurtigruten plans to use dead fish to power some of its ships, it said on Monday, as it seeks to reduce its pollution and climate change impact.

Leftover dead fish from Norway's large fishing industry will be mixed with other organic waste to make a liquified biogas to be used instead of heavy fuel oil, said Hurtigruten, which runs cruises to the Arctic and Antarctica, among other locations.

"What others see as a problem, we see as a resource and a solution," the company's chief executive Daniel Skjeldam said.

"By introducing biogas as fuel for cruise ships, Hurtigruten will be the first cruise company to power ships with fossil-free fuel," he added.

The first biogas ship could be ready as soon as the end of next year, according to spokesman Rune Thomas Ege.

The company aims to have six of its 17 ships capable of using a combination of biogas, batteries and liquified natural gas, the cleanest of fossil fuels, by 2021.

Norway, which already has buses that run on biogas, has large fishing and forestry industries which produce vast amounts of organic waste.

The announcement comes as the cruise sector faces heavy criticism for its climate footprint and its impact on air quality.

A large cruise ship powered by highly-polluting heavy fuel oil emits almost as many fine particles daily as one million cars, according to German environmental group Nabu.

On Monday, a French court fined cruise company P&O and its US captain 100,000 euros ($114,000) for knowingly using fuel with excessive sulphur levels, the first such ruling in France.

Norway has a "zero emission" target for cruise ships and ferries navigating its fjords listed as world heritage sites by UNESCO by 2026 at the latest.

Hurtigruten, which aims to become carbon neutral by 2050, has ordered three hybrid battery/diesel vessels which the company said will be "the first cruise ships in the world that will be able to operate completely emission free for periods of time".

The spokesman said that is "and something deemed almost impossible just a few years back".

The first of those three ships should enter into service in May 2019.

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Curled octopus spotted off Dutch coast by divers exploring wreck

DutchNews, October 16, 2018

A rare viewing of an octopus was made in the coastal waters off Callantsoog over the weekend, Noord Hollands Nieuws reports. 

The curled octopus (Eledone cirrhosa) was discovered by diver Mark Barto who was filming a shipwreck eight kilometres off the coast.

‘I was swimming away from the wreck for a bit when I saw it sitting on the bottom of the sea. I was the only one with a camera. (..) When you meet octopuses in tropical seas they are very shy but this one I could film close up. This is why I like what I do, it really rocks!’ he told NH Nieuws. 

According to Naturalis biologist Auke-Florian Hiemstra, the footage of the octopus is very special. ‘There had been no pictures so far of an curled octopus moving on the ocean floor in the Dutch part of the North Sea,’ he said.

Going, going, gone! Tokyo's Tsukiji holds last tuna auction before move

Yahoo – AFP, Shingo ITO, October 6, 2018

Map showing current and planned new location of Tsukiji market. (AFP Photo/
Gal ROMA)

Tokyo fishmongers gathered before dawn Saturday for one final tuna auction at the world-famous Tsukiji market before it closed its doors to move to a new site.

It was an emotional moment for veterans of the market, the beating heart of Tokyo's culinary scene for decades, which many acknowledged had become too rundown to support its mammoth operations.

"I'm almost crying," said Hisao Ishii, a retired seafood auctioneer who was back at the market for its final day.

"Today is a sad day of goodbyes. Tsukiji tried to meet the times, but it is getting older," the 68-year-old told AFP. "I came here today to tell Tsukiji thank you and goodbye."

In the weak early-morning sun, traders filed into a warehouse for the last tuna auction, an indispensable ritual in Tokyo's culinary world, and a major tourist draw.

Hundreds of fresh and frozen tuna tagged with their weight and port of origin were laid out in lines in a refrigerated warehouse, as buyers in rubber boots quietly inspected the wares.

They rubbed slices between their fingers and shone torches into the insides of the fish, swapping information with rivals before the showdown began.

At 6:00 am sharp, handbells rang to signal the auction was under way and the air

 filled with the sound of auctioneers yelling prices at buyers, who raised fingers to

indicate interest (AFP Photo/Nicolas Datiche)

At 6:00 am sharp, handbells rang to signal the auction was under way and the air filled with the sound of auctioneers yelling prices at buyers, who raised fingers to indicate interest.

The highest bidder at Saturday's auction paid 4.4 million yen ($38,700) for a bluefin tuna -- a threatened species -- weighing 162 kilograms (357 pounds) caught off Aomori, northern Japan, according to the market.

It was far below the record 155.4 million yen paid at the first auction of 2013. Buyers traditionally offer eye-watering prices as a "New Year gratuity" when the market resumes operation after winter holidays.

'Pass the baton'

Fish wholesaler Takeshi Yoshida said Tsukiji had left "its mark on history" but it was time to "pass the baton".

Tsukiji's inner market, known as "Japan's Kitchen", will now move to Toyosu, a site in eastern Tokyo, where operations will begin on October 11.

Tsukiji's tuna auctions have regularly produced eye-watering prices, including a record 

155.4 million yen ($1.8 million) paid for a 222-kilogramme bluefin in 2013 (AFP 

Photo/Nicolas Datiche)

"It will be the first massive move in our history," said Hiroyasu Ito, chair of the market association.

"We want to club together and get through it," he told reporters.

The move has been in the works for years, prompted by Tsukiji's dilapidated state.

Wholesalers had raised concerns about the antiquated facility's earthquake resistance, sanitation and fire safety, as well as the structure's use of asbestos and its crumbling walls.

The crowds of tourists who would mob the market, including groups who lined up for hours to win one of just 120 spots for the tuna auction, would also irk wholesalers by interfering with business.

The new site will feature state-of-the-art refrigeration, while tourists will be confined to special galleries behind glass.

But the move has proved controversial, with rows breaking out over pollution and the loss of Tsukiji's globally recognised brand.

Map showing current and planned new location of Tsukiji market. (AFP Photo/

Gal ROMA)

Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike was forced to delay the move after a series of problems at Toyosu, formerly home to a gas plant, including soil and groundwater contamination.

Local authorities paid hundreds of millions of dollars to clean up the new facility and Koike took the final decision to move the market there in late 2017, ending years of delays.

'Hopes and fears'

The move affects not only the famed fishmongers, but also fruit and vegetable vendors, restaurants and other shops in the inner market.

"I feel nostalgic as Tsukiji has been my home ground for 15 years. We are sad to lose the Tsukiji brand," vegetable wholesaler Tsukasa Kujirai told AFP.

He acknowledged the need for the move but said he was torn between "hopes and fears" about the new site.

The final day of the market looked much like any other in the decades since it opened on the site.

Hundreds of fresh and frozen tuna tagged with their weight and ports of origin were

 laid out in lines as veteran buyers in rubber boots quietly inspected the wares (AFP 

Photo/Nicolas Datiche)

Cars and small "turret trucks" used by vendors whizzed along the roads around the market, which was full of buyers.

As the market closed at noon, workers busily mopped the empty floor after the auction, while hundreds of tourists flocked to the gate, taking pictures of the market's nameboard.

"It's so sad to hear that this very popular and interesting tourist spot will be closed," said Rodolfo Hernandez, a 28-year-old graduate student from Mexico.

The so-called outer market, with brick-and-mortar shops selling everything from seaweed to coffee, will remain after the move.

But the warehouses that housed vendors and additional shops and restaurants are expected to be levelled to make way, initially, for a transport depot for the 2020 Olympic Games.

Beyond that, Koike has suggested the site could be transformed into a kind of culinary theme park, commemorating the market's colourful history.

World court sinks Bolivia bid for sea access

Yahoo – AFP, Jan HENNOP and Danny KEMP, 1 October 2018

Bolivia -- South America's poorest country -- became landlocked after losing a
four-year war against Chile at the end of the 19th century, forfeiting territory and
 its access to the Pacific coast

The International Court of Justice on Monday ruled against landlocked Bolivia in a row with Chile over access to the Pacific Ocean that dates back to the 19th century.

Bolivia lost its prized route to the sea in a 1879-1883 war with Chile, and Santiago has rejected every attempt since then by its smaller and poorer neighbour to win back its coastline.

La Paz took Santiago to the top UN court in The Hague in 2013 to try to force it to the negotiating table over the maritime spat, a long-running strain on relations between the two South American countries.

"The court by 12 votes to three finds that the Republic of Chile did not undertake a legal obligation to negotiate a sovereign access for the... state of Bolivia," judge Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf said at the end of a judgement that took an hour and 20 minutes to read out.

The judge said, however, he hoped that "with willingness on the part of both parties meaningful negotiations can be undertaken".

Bolivia's leftist President Evo Morales -- who has used the issue to boost support at home as he seeks a fourth term in office -- attended the court in person for the verdict.

"Bolivia will never give up" its claim, Morales told reporters afterwards. "The people of the world know that Bolivia had an invasion and we had our sovereign access to the Pacific Ocean taken away from us."

Bolivia says regaining its territory which comprises of several hundred kilometres

of coastline along the northern tip of Chile will stimulate growth and development

'False expectations'

The ICJ was set up after World War II to rule in disputes between UN member states. The court's findings are binding and cannot be appealed, although it has no real power to enforce them.

Chile and Bolivia have had no diplomatic relations since 1978 when Bolivia's last major attempt to negotiate a passage to the Pacific broke down in acrimony.

The War of the Pacific pitted Bolivia and Peru on one side against Chile on the other, and saw battles fought in the Pacific Ocean, the Andes mountains and even in the Atacama Desert, the driest desert in the world.

Decades of post-independence border tensions in South America were finally ignited by a dispute over Bolivian attempts to tax a Chilean company mining saltpetre, a mineral used in fertilizer that was at the time replacing the traditional use of guano, the excrement of seabirds and bats.

Chilean President Sebastian Pinera lashed out at his Bolivian counterpart as he hailed the ICJ's decision.

"President Evo Morales of Bolivia has created false expectations in his own people, and has created great frustration in his own people," he said in a statement.

"We have lost five valuable years of the healthy and necessary relationship that Chile needs with all neighbouring countries, including Bolivia."

Based in The Hague, the International Court of Justice was set up in 1945

to rule on border and territorial disputes between nations

'The struggle continues!'

Morales has weaponised the dispute to boost his popularity at home where the importance of the issue is underscored by the fact that Bolivia still has a navy despite lack of access to the sea.

A small crowd of Bolivian protesters waved flags, played pan pipes and banged drums outside the Peace Palace for the verdict, shouting "The struggle continues!"

"Of course we are sad about the decision. We’re a small country, but we’re not Switzerland or Luxembourg. We need access to export and import our goods,” said Gabriella Telleria, 50, one of the protesters.

“We asked for justice and we didn’t get it,” she told AFP.

Bolivia says regaining the 400 kilometres (260 miles) of coastline along the northern tip of Chile that it lost in the war would stimulate growth and development in South America's poorest country.

Bolivian activists said the loss of the Chuquicamata mine, the world's largest open-pit copper mine which is situated in the disputed area, has also badly hit the country's indigenous peoples.

For its part, Santiago says the border is based on a 1904 peace treaty signed with Bolivia in the wake of the War of the Pacific and therefore must be respected.

Meanwhile, Chile has opened its own case against Bolivia over the Silala waterway, which flows into the Atacama desert and which La Paz has threatened to divert.

#UPDATE The International Court of Justice rejects a bid by Bolivia to force Chile to the negotiating table for access to the Pacific Ocean in a row dating back to the 19th century https://t.co/5TjZh9MFhB pic.twitter.com/i1BiinaE3s

— AFP news agency (@AFP) October 1, 2018

Over 300 endangered turtles hatch in Singapore

Yahoo –AFP, 28 September 2018

Hawksbill turtles are considered critically endangered

More than 300 hawksbill turtles have hatched on beaches in Singapore this month and been released into the sea, authorities said Friday, in a boost for the critically endangered creatures.

They hatched on three beaches across the tropical Southeast Asian country, according to the National Parks Board, which oversees parks and nature reserves.

Over 100 turtles hatched on Sentosa Island, a popular tourist destination, according to the organisation that manages the island. After their nest was discovered in July, a barrier was erected around the site to protect it from monitor lizards and crabs

It was the fourth time since 1996 that eggs of the critically endangered turtles have hatched on Sentosa.

The other turtle nests were discovered at a beach on the east coast and on Satumu island south of the Singapore mainland, the parks board said. A total of 321 turtles hatched over a 10-day period from September 15.

Hawksbills get their names from their narrow pointed beaks and are found throughout the world's tropical oceans, mainly around coral reefs.

They are threatened by damage to their natural habitats from pollution and coastal developments, and are also targeted by poachers.

Their body parts are used to make turtle soup and their shells are crushed into powder for use in jelly dessert. The Hawksbill shell is also used to make products like combs and ornamental hairpins.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature classifies the turtles as critically endangered.

Arctic beluga whale 'swimming strongly' in Thames estuary

Yahoo – AFP, Robin MILLARD, September 26, 2018

A beluga whale in the river Thames, close to Gravesend. (AFP Photo/
Daniel LEAL-OLIVAS)

Gravesend (United Kingdom) (AFP) - A beluga whale spotted in the River Thames estuary outside London --- far from its natural Arctic habitat -- is "swimming strongly and feeding normally", Britain's main animal protection charity said on Wednesday.

"At the moment, there are no major concerns for the welfare of the animal," the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said in a statement, adding that the whale appeared "able to move fast in the water and dive".

"Following our request to the London Coastguard, we are pleased that local boats have moved away. Whales have acute hearing and become stressed very easily," the group said.

The extremely rare sighting triggered wonder and excitement on Tuesday and the whale was spotted again in the same area on Wednesday.

Rob Lott, a marine mammal scientist at the Whale and Dolphin Conservation wildlife charity, said the cetacean was being monitored.

"The longer it stays in the Thames estuary then it will become more of a concern," he told BBC radio.

A beluga whale breaches in the River Thames close to Gravesend, east of 

London on September 26, 2018 (AFP Photo/Daniel LEAL-OLIVAS)

"Hopefully instinct will soon kick in and the beluga will leave the estuary and go out into the North Sea and then head north where it should be," the scientist explained.

The sight of a beluga whale so far south -- 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometres) from even Iceland -- is exceptional.

"Beluga whales are a species of the icy Arctic -- finding one in the tepid Thames is an astonishingly rare event," said Rod Downie, polar chief adviser at WWF, the World Wide Fund for Nature.

Lucy Babey, head of science and conservation at the marine conservation charity Orca, said it was the most southerly recording of a beluga in Britain, according to the BBC.

The previous reported sightings of beluga whales in UK waters were in 2015, when two were spotted off the northeast coast of England and one in Northern Ireland.

Rescue teams are on standby in case the whale gets into trouble.

"It's very unusual and it's not a very good place," Julia Cable, spokeswoman for British Divers Marine Life Rescue, which saves marine animals in distress, told AFP.

The Thames remains a busy waterway and the whale is currently between two major container docks, Tilbury and the new London Gateway port.

"We wouldn't go anywhere near it in a boat. We could just do more harm than good," said Cable.

A beluga whale surfaces in the river Thames estuary near Gravesend.

(AFP Photo/Daniel LEAL-OLIVAS)

Feeding around barges

The beluga was first sighted on Tuesday near the southern, Kent side of the river, downstream of Gravesend.

It was feeding around moored barges and did not move more than 200 metres during the day.

An AFP photographer saw the whale surfacing in the same area on Wednesday.

Belugas typically live for 40 to 60 years. Highly sociable, they typically form pods and are often seen in river estuaries in the summer.

The beluga's appearance brings back memories of the famous 2006 Thames whale.

A female northern bottlenose whale was discovered swimming in the river in central London, going past the Houses of Parliament.

On its second day in the city, as it lost strength, rescuers intervened and lifted it onto a barge by crane. It died, after suffering from convulsions, near Gravesend as the barge rushed towards the open sea.

France reverses car tyre sea sanctuary -- an environmental flop

Yahoo – AFP, Vincent-Xavier MORVAN, September 23, 2018

Ten thousand tyres are set to be lifted out of the sea by the divers and boat crew
over the next few weeks, with the remaining 12,500 extracted in the second
quarter of 2019 (AFP Photo/VALERY HACHE)

Vallauris (France) (AFP) - What seemed a like a crazy idea turned out to be just that: a 1980s experiment that saw 25,000 car tyres dumped into the crystal-clear waters of the Mediterranean to create a sanctuary for sealife off the French coast is being cleaned up after it was found to be polluting.

Since the start of last week, divers and a specially equipped boat with lifting gear have been fishing out hundreds of the old loops of rubber about 500 metres (1,600 feet) from an exclusive coastline between the towns of Cannes and Antibes.

The original vision, backed by local French authorities at the time and fishermen, was that the tyres would become populated by coral and other sea creatures in a conservation area where fishing was off limits.

In France, the idea of a "tyre reef" was tried only here, but a local academic working on the clean-up operation said authorities in other countries, particularly the United States, had tried the same failed idea.

"We hoped (back in the 1980s) that we could restore aquatic life there, but it didn't work," the deputy mayor of Antibes, Eric Duplay told AFP. "It turns out that the tyre reef was not a prolific place for biomass."

Denis Genovese, the head of an association of local fishermen, confirmed that most Mediterranean lifeforms had shunned the idea of living inside mad-made products manufactured out of rubber, resins, oil and other chemicals.

Divers and a specially equipped boat with lifting gear have been fishing out hundreds

 of the old rubber tyres 500 metres (1,600 feet) from an exclusive coastline between

the French resorts of Cannes and Antibes (AFP Photo/VALERY HACHE)

Leaking toxic chemicals

Sedentary creatures such as the local scorpion fish didn't use them, Genovese said, while "grouper fish, conger eels and sea bream swim around them, but no species really got used to it".

Worse, a study in 2005 by researchers at the University of Nice showed that the tyres were leaking toxic chemicals into the environment, including heavy metals, which are a threat to human life.

Authorities were also worried that the tyres could degrade further, nearly 40 years after they sank to the seabed, and break up into smaller pieces which would be a risk for nearby seagrass meadows.

In 2015, a first mission to remove 2,500 tyres was undertaken to show that they could be extracted safely, with the work underway at the moment a second and more important phase of the clean-up operation.

Around 10,000 are set to be lifted by the divers and boat crew over the next few weeks, with the remaining 12,500 extracted in the second quarter of 2019.

Regeneration hopes

AFP hopped aboard the vessel last week to watch the progress in action as dozens of a tyres were hauled from the sea, with the luxury holiday villas of the French Riviera visible on the coastline behind.

Local French authorities and fishermen hoped back in the 1980s that the tyres 

would become populated by coral and other sea creatures in a conservation area 

where fishing was off limits (AFP Photo/VALERY HACHE)

The Saudi royal family own a huge villa on a small stretch of beach opposite the site, which was the focus of a scandal in 2015 when King Salman tried to privatise the sand for his holiday and caused an uproar among locals.

The fine white sand is a problem for the clean-up team of divers, which struggle with low visibility as they find the tyres and thread them on to wire cables which are then lifted to the surface.

"In the morning, it's easy, the water's clear," crew member Morgan Postic on board the Ocea vessel said. "But as we stir it all up down at the bottom, you can't see anything and it gets much more complicated."

The tyres will be sent to the nearby city of Nice and then to recycling centres where they will be broken up into granules that can be used in construction projects.

"After that we'll leave the seabed to restore itself naturally and we'll continue to monitor with censors," said marine scientist Patrice Francour from the University of Nice, who is working on the issue.

Francour said the clean-up would end France's one and only experiment with a "tyre reef", but that other countries still had to deal with the legacy of the failed idea, notably the United States.

A million euros has been provided by the French state to finance the French clean-up, while French tyre company Michelin has contributed 200,000 euros (235,000 dollars).

Ocean Cleanup move to the Pacific, ‘a milestone’ says Dutch inventor

DutchNews, September 17, 2018

Photo: The Ocean Cleanup

Pacific Ocean trials of a young Dutch inventor’s system to clear plastic waste from the seas started this weekend, 240 nautical miles offshore from San Fransisco. 

The system, devised by 24-year-old Boyan Slat while he was a student at Delft University, consists of a 600 metre-long floating curved boom which collects and holds waste until it can be collected. 

The boom has a three metre skirt attached underneath it to catch waste floating just below the surface. 

The start of the full sea trial follows hundreds of scale-model tests, a series of prototypes, research expeditions and trials involving a shorter boom in the North Sea. 

If the two-week trial is successful, the boom will be towed towards what has become know as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, 1,200 nautical miles offshore to start the clean up. 

‘Today’s launch is an important milestone, but the real celebration will come once the first plastic returns to shore. For 60 years, mankind has been putting plastic into the oceans; from that day onwards, we’re taking it back out again,’ Slat said in a statement on Saturday. 

Crowdfunding

Slat raised the first $2m to to fund his ambitious plan via crowdfunding in 2014. Today the OceanCleanup has a staff of 70 and counts Dutch marine services group Boskalis and Denmark’s shipping giant Maersk among its backers. 

If the current trial is successful, and if the funding is available, The Ocean Cleanup aims to scale up to a fleet of approximately 60 systems focused on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch over the next two years. 

‘The system is designed to be propelled by wind and waves, allowing it to passively catch and concentrate plastic debris in front of it,’  the organisation says. ‘Moving slightly faster than the plastic, the system will act like a giant Pac-Man, skimming the surface of the ocean.’ 

The Ocean Cleanup projects that the full fleet can remove half of the plastic in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch within five years’ time.

Japan mulls next steps after whaling defeat in Brazil

Yahoo – AFP, September 14, 2018

"Japan was expecting something positive happens at this meeting," said
Joji Morishita, who chaired the meeting of the deeply divided 89-member
body and now reverts to being Japan's commissioner (AFP Photo/Jure MAKOVEC)

Florianopolis (Brazil) (AFP) - The International Whaling Commission's rejection Friday of Japan's proposal to resume commercial whaling "is not the end of the story," Tokyo's whaling commissioner said at the end of a divisive meeting in Brazil.

"Japan was expecting something positive happens at this meeting," said Joji Morishita, who chaired the meeting of the deeply divided 89-member body and now reverts to being Japan's commissioner.

"But that's not the end of the story. That's the beginning of the story of the next steps," Morishita told AFP.

Anti-whaling nations led by Australia, the European Union and the United States, defeated Japan's "Way Forward" proposal -- to return to whaling for profit -- in a 41 to 27 vote.

The vote was followed by threats of a withdrawal by Japan and left the 72-year old organization at a crossroads.

Morishita said that despite a "very strong sense of dialogue," the differences between pro- and anti-whaling nations were "very clear"

"I don't like to look at this as being failure or success, or the end. This is always the beginning of something new, and that's very important for the parties involved."

Morishita had told the close of the meeting that member countries should ask themselves what kind of an organization they wanted it to be.

It "needs to address conservation issues, climate change, pollution and all that stuff....and there are needs for management too," he told AFP.

"So how do you address this? Through the IWC or through a different organization or a combination of different organizations?"

"I think that's what we would now like to look at," he said, "not just concentrating whether IWC can survive or continue, or fail doing a job. To look at the larger world."

Pro-whaling states say the IWC's mandate is both to conserve and manage -- meaning to sustainably hunt -- recovering whale stocks, but that the emphasis within the organization has leant too far towards conservation, leaving them without a voice.

The large Japanese delegation here would "assess the result of this meeting very carefully back in Japan," said Morishita.

While Japan would maintain its commitment to international cooperation "as a whole" he said, "but how they like to do this from here is something they will discuss back home."

Asked if that would involve Japan inviting like-minded states to join them in a new pro-whaling organization, Morishita said: "I simply don't know. I have no basis to answer this question."

And asked if the world had seen the last of Japan at the biennial IWC meetings, he said: "I have no comment to make on that."