The Ocean Cleanup and the City of Alameda announced that they have signed a lease agreement for portions of the former Alameda Naval Air Station, a peninsula known as Alameda Point. Located on San Francisco Bay, this is the site where assembly of the first cleanup system will begin within the next month.
The Ocean Cleanup is a non-profit organization, developing technologies to rid the world’s oceans of plastic. The NGO said in a statement:
“The combination of available yard space and sheltered water access makes it the ideal basecamp for the launch of Cleanup System #1.”
As the 600m-long system will be assembled, it will gradually be lowered into the adjacent Seaplane Lagoon, where the system will be afloat until the launch window opens for the tow-out to the Pacific Ocean. The assembly phase will be followed by a set of final tests before the launch of this first cleanup system in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, currently scheduled for mid-2018. The City of Alameda said:
“We are excited to announce that Alameda will be home to The Ocean Cleanup’s first cleanup system. This passive drifting system is set to begin cleaning plastic from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch this summer. It’s time for the largest cleanup in history.”
Plastic pollution in the world’s oceans has been identified as one of the biggest environmental issues in last years, impacting more than 600 marine species. Except for this, according to the United Nations, plastic pollution is conservatively estimated to have a yearly financial damage of 13 billion USD.
