Beach bots, sea 'raptors' and marine toolsets mobilised to get rid of marine litter

You can guarantee that any beach you walk on, you'll find pieces of plastic," said James Comerford, a senior researcher in materials and nanotechnology at SINTEF, an independent research organisation in Oslo, Norway. Plastics are estimated to comprise 85% of marine litter, with 11 million metric tonnes entering the oceans annually and the volume potentially tripling by 2040. Some have predicted that, by weight, there will be more plastics than fish in the seas by 2050. In light of the alarming outlook, innovative approaches are required to tackle the problem. This is exactly what the EU Mission "Restore our Ocean and Waters by 2030" is targeting, with the ambition of reducing plastic litter at sea by at least 50%, cutting microplastics released into the environment by 30%, and halving agricultural nutrient losses as well as the use of chemical pesticides. To reduce pollution, the Mission is launching a'lighthouse' in the Mediterranean Sea that will act as a hub to develop, ...