By the year 2020 scientists expect to be able to introduce a revolutionary project called Ocean Cleanup which will feature a floating dam. The dam will be located in a vortex where garbage gathers, collecting up refuse that ends up there. The device will help reduce waste collection costs for programs already in place.

Protecting Ocean Life By Removing Dangerous Trash

When there is various types of trash floating freely around the ocean it can cause a lot of damage to the echo system and marine animals. Marine animals can swallow small trash items that can damage their organs or even choke them. Trash and debris can get tangled up in coral reefs and inhibit proper growth  causing damage to the places that ocean life like to live. It is currently suspected that some of these items can lead to cancer, infertility, and other health risks for people once they enter the food chain.

The Ocean Clean Project Dam

Measuring at one hundred kilometers long (sixty-two miles) this floating barrier will feature a V shape. The two arms of the V will stretch out a be designed of a screen that is three meters deep. The screen will catch the garbage that floats into the screens and pull it into the center unit where it will be collected for recycling at a later date. Located twenty-three kilometers off The Netherlands coast is where the first test run of The Ocean Cleanup will be ran. The Ocean Cleanup will be placed in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which is a vortex in the North Pacific that pulls in trash naturally.

Costs For Current Cleaning Efforts Will Decrease

Currently if anyone wishes to help remove trash and debris from the ocean to protect the marine animals they have to go around in boats. While driving around the ocean in boats they have to have other people look across the ocean's surface and monitor for jetsam floating on the waves. However, this leaves a lot of trash still free flowing below the surface where people can not see the garbage clearly. Since, the Ocean Cleanup will use the motion of the waves to gather the trash for recycling there will be no cost of operation. Only a cost of traveling to the Ocean Cleanup and emptying the recycling collection chamber, which will still cost less then traveling around the ocean looking for random trash on floating on the ocean waves.

Protecting The Ocean And Marine Animals Will Protect Humanity

By removing dangerous trash and debris from the ocean water people will be protecting the life of marine animals which humans may consume for food. Protecting a natural food source for many other creatures as well. Without the dangers of ingesting trash many marine animal lives will be elongated and their way of life will return to a better time. By using a naturally occurring ocean vortex will also help detour the possibility of marine life becoming ensnared within the dam because they will inherently avoid that location.