“System 002 is our first large-scale cleanup system. Its 12-week test campaign has now been concluded successfully – we have now reached proof of technology. Watch this video to see how it works. “

Off-Shore Cinematography: Dan van der kooy & Toby Harriman

Edit: Florent Beauverd

The start of Trip 2 for System 002, aka Jenny. I traveled to Victoria, BC Canada to join a 6-week mission documenting the amazing crews at The Ocean Cleanup and Maersk testing a new system to clean our beautiful oceans.

“Follow the System 002 crew as they head back to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch to continue trialing our latest ocean cleanup technology. The last 3 weeks were spent transiting, redeploying and preparing for a new series of tests.”

Off-Shore Cinematography: Dan van der kooy & Toby Harriman

Edit: Dan van der kooy & Florent Beauverd

“The crew offshore in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch achieved our largest ocean plastic catch to date in a single extraction with System 002 on September 22nd 2021. This load amounts to 3.8 tons and concludes the last short test of the campaign. The next weeks will see the crew putting the system to longer tests, potentially harvesting significantly more. While we look forward to bigger catches, the reactions of the crew members as the deck gets filled with trash are already an indication of how close we are to proving the capacity and efficiency of our latest system.”

Off-Shore Cinematography: Dan van der kooy & Toby Harriman

Edit: Dan van der kooy & Florent Beauverd

“Following our largest ocean plastic catch to date, the crew got to work sorting it on deck. In the meantime, System 002 aka Jenny has successfully faced stronger weather over the last few days with wind and waves picking up and is about halfway through the full duration test.”

Off-Shore Cinematography: Dan van der kooy & Toby Harriman

Edit: Dan van der kooy & Florent Beauverd

One of my pet projects.

“Some of the most common objects we extract from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch are eel traps used to catch hagfish. Here’s our operations manager, Glen Kissack, explaining what they are in more detail.”

Do you know what Eel Traps are? I sure didn’t before working with @theoceancleanup. Being here first hand, we see them by the tens of thousands, it is crazy to witness. So of course we decided to make a little point of it and put as many aside as possible from a couple of our extractions. This was definitely one of my favorite pieces I put together and one of my goals while out here is to help create impactful visuals to bring light on what we are up to share with the world. With an item like this, it only felt right to use myself to help show the true scale of the eel traps we caught.

To learn more about these weird items, we searched online and found some great information about these traps via the @Surfrider Foundation. This is what they had to say about them…

“Hagfish are eel-like scavengers that are important to clean the ocean of dead carcasses. As bottom-feeders, these primitive fish are typically found in cool, deep waters. To protect themselves from predators, they produce a thick, mucus-like slime. Hagfish are considered a culinary delicacy in Korea (“gomjangeo“) and their skins are turned into “eel-skin” products like boots, wallets, and purses.

Compared to other types of fishing gear, however, the hagfish trap’s distinctive cone-shaped funnels are easily identifiable and originate from small fisheries on the west coast of North America and in East Asia, mainly Korea. The animals are sold almost exclusively to Korean markets for food or use in “eel skin” products such as wallets and boots.”

Off-Shore Cinematography: Toby Harriman

Edit: Toby Harriman & Florent Beauverd

“On October 20, 2021, we officially announced that after the successful completion of System 002 test campaign, we have achieved proof of technology and are ready to return to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and start the cleanup. To celebrate this milestone, a marine parade was coordinated to welcome the offshore crew in Victoria, BC, Canada. Here are a few special moments from this day.”

Additional Off-Shore Cinematography: Toby Harriman

“On October 20, 2021, we officially announced that after the successful completion of System 002 test campaign, we have achieved proof of technology and are ready to return to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and start the cleanup.”

Additional Off-Shore Cinematography: Toby Harriman