Half-catamaran, half-submarine, the “platypus” measures plastic pollution in the Mediterranean

A strange animal sails near Antibes off the Côte d’Azur. the platypus that is to say the name of platypus in the language of Shakespeare is not with hairs but with motors. It is a futuristic semi-submersible used by the association Blue Odyssey Initiative to measure seabed pollution. “We talk a lot about plastic pollution, the state of the Mediterranean, our objective is to really see what is happening below”, explains François-Alexandre Bertrand, designer of the ship.

The machine, halfway between the catamaran and the submarine, has the possibility of completely submerging its central part, passengers and cockpit included. Once two meters below the surface, the platypus, equipped with its powerful cameras, can map the seabed with a wide perimeter. “The usefulness of having these images is that we manage to scan along the coast whereas with divers, it would take much longer”, specifies Patrick Deixonne, member ofDispatch 7th Continenta partner association of the project.

The purpose of this operation, to compare the underwater environment before and after the summer period. Thanks to these readings, the teams want to measure the evolution of plastic waste in the water, according to tourist activity. The association hopes, through their work, to alert public authorities to the urgency of preserving the aquatic environment. Thus, each data collected will be made available to town halls, departments and regions to imagine hand in hand the best solutions for preserve our seas and oceans.