Maersk Tender and Maersk Trader, the two Maersk Supply Service anchor-handling vessels currently supporting The Ocean Cleanup in the Pacific Ocean, have been contracted for an additional year of operations.
Since 2018, Maersk Supply Service has project managed and delivered offshore campaigns for The Ocean Cleanup, the Dutch green tech non-profit organisation developing and scaling plastic-harvesting technologies to rid the oceans of floating plastic.
The offshore campaigns have taken place in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the largest accumulation of ocean plastic in the world, and have involved towing and trialling The Ocean Cleanup’s plastic-harvesting systems, in order to optimise the systems’ viability and capacity for subsequent scale-ups.
With safety at the forefront of all its operations, Maersk Supply Service has supported The Ocean Cleanup’s mission through its specialist maritime expertise, executing the offshore element safely and efficiently in a very remote location.
In May 2021, Maersk Supply Service committed a second vessel and crew to the operations for System 002.
By October, the teams reached a major milestone, with the vessels returning from a second offshore voyage with proof of technology after a successful trial, which ascertained that The Ocean Cleanup’s System 002 could safely, efficiently, repetitively, and reliably remove plastic from the oceans.
System 002 continues to harvest plastic in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in tandem with the onshore development of System 03, a larger version designed to act as the blueprint for future scale-up.
To date, The Ocean Cleanup has collected approximately 67,000 kgs of plastic waste from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
In addition to the vessels and marine support from Maersk Supply Service, A. P. Møller-Maersk also provides logistics support to The Ocean Cleanup, ensuring global end-to-end transport of the project equipment such as the collected ocean plastic and its river cleanup technologies, including the Interceptor Original, the Interceptor Barrier, and the Interceptor Tender.
