A fracture in The Ocean Cleanup's "giant Pac Man", dispatched to scoop up waste from the Pacific Ocean, has forced the company to abort the mission and haul the apparatus back to shore.
The Dutch non-profit began to tow its System 001 equipment, which is nicknamed Wilson, to a port in Hawaii for repair on 2 January 2019, after finding a portion of the apparatus "drifting away".
The Ocean Cleanup found the fracture at one end of its U-Shaped device, nicknamed Wilson
Discovered during a routine inspection of the device on 29 December 2018, the fracture was located at one end of the 2,000-foot-long (600-metre), U-shaped floating barrier, which features a 10-foot-long (three-metre) "skirt" underneath to collect the waste in the water. Ocean Cleanup attributes unexpected damage to material stress
The Ocean Cleanup admitted it was "surprised" by the damage but believes it is likely to be due to the stress caused by 106 load cycles. Fortunately, stabilisers have ensured that System 001 didn't tip over, while there has been no material lost, or harm to the crew, environment and marine wildlife.
"Saturday, December 29th, unexpectedly one of the tow heads, together with an 18-metre piece of floater pipe with two stabiliser frames, was found to be drifting away from the rest of Wilson," The Ocean Cleanup told Dezeen.
"No prior indications were seen for such a thing to happen, so this came as a surprise for both the offshore crew ...