Without drastic action there could be more plastic in the ocean than fish by 2050, allege environmental activists who are trying to raise funds for “SeaVax” – a clever solar-powered ship that hopes to rid the seas of up to 22-million kilograms of plastic per year.

A January 2016 report published by the Swiss non-profit, World Economic Forum, warns global oceans stand at a perilous crossroads. The study found 32% of all plastic packaging escapes collection systems and makes its way into natural ecosystems such as the seas.

“Currently, 8 million tonnes of plastic end up in the ocean each year – the equivalent of a dump truck of plastic rubbish every minute,” Al Jazeera reported earlier this year.

“At current rates, that will have grown to two trucks a minute by 2030, and four a minute by 2050 – by which time, by weight, there will be as much plastic in the oceans as fish.”

Campaigners with Avaaz, the international environmental crowdfunding and advocacy group, are hoping to fund a robotic vessel that will suck up these dangerous plastics.

According to National Geographic, many plastics do not wear down over time and simply break into smaller pieces, making ocean cleanup efforts next to impossible.

Oceanographers and ecologists recently discovered that about 70% of this marine debris sinks to the bottom of the ocean. The SeaVax ships, however, suck these pieces out of the water, including microplastics that aren’t visible to the human eye.

As microplastics and other trash collect on or near the surface of the ocean, they block sunlight from reaching plankton and algae. As these organisms die, they stop producing nutrients and will threaten the ocean’s entire food web.

Seven kilograms – or 70 000 plastic fragments – can be cleaned up with a donation of R200, Avaaz says, while a donation of R1500 can rid the ocean of half a million fragments.

Using SeaVax could clean up one of the world’s worst-affected marine debris sites in just 10 years, says Avaaz – the Great Pacific Garbage Patch or “Pacific trash vortex”, which spans waters from the West Coast of North America to Japan and is believed to be twice the size of France.

Previous estimates pegged the goliath task as nearly impossible and there was little political will from a single nation to take responsibility for the trash vortex, since it was so far from any country’s coastline.

To donate or learn more about the Ocean Without Plastic campaign, visit Avaaz’s website: https://secure.avaaz.org/en/oceans_cleanup_52/?pv=644&rc=fb.

To see prototypes for the SeaVax robotic system, click here: http://www.bluebird-electric.net/oceanography/Ocean_Plastic_International_Rescue/SeaVax_Ocean_Clean_Up_Robot_Drone_Ship_Sea_Vacuum.htm