WATCH: New underwater drone to help Ullapool Sea Savers' clean-up work
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THE fight against waste in Ross-shire seas is diving below the surface – after eco-minded youngsters in Wester Ross began operating a state-of-the-art underwater drone.
Ullapool Sea Savers have added an ROV – or remote operated vehicle – to their clean-up tools.
And their Chasing M2 drone cleaned up its first pieces of human debris at the weekend, when it took to the waters of Ullapool Harbour.
The drone, which was fitted with an arm to help it grab waste, removed tin cans from the harbour's seabed as its operators carried out practice sessions with it.
And video footage from the dive showed that there's plenty of clean-up work to do in future – with plastic fishing gear and discarded drink cans among the human waste found beneath the surface.
"We thought one of the biggest challenges when it comes to marine issues is that many of the problems are underwater – i.e. out of sight and out of mind – and thought an ROV might be a great way to actually show people what is down there and also get the kids some hands-on experience," said a spokesman for the Ullapool group.
"The ROV we got is a relatively new one, a Chasing M2 that GaelForce in Inverness import from China and are a lot cheaper than the others we had been looking at beforehand.
"We were hoping to do more practice in the local swimming pool before taking it out to sea but again covid has stalled that. Instead we had had a few socially distanced lessons at Ullapool Jetty and Harbour and after getting to grips with the controls, we added on the robot arm grabber and last week was our first trial.
"There is lots of rubbish that is either washed out to sea, blown off the harbour or thrown off boats on the seabed around the harbour.
"We decided to start with smaller lighter items, so tin cans have been a good target practice. It takes time to line up and grab the items but we hope to get better with practice and then go for bigger items – if they are too big and heavy then we think we can take a rope and grapple hook down with us and attach it to things that can then be hauled up by hand or by machines."
And they already have ambitious hopes for the future, including getting out and about around the marine protection area this summer in order to recover so-called 'ghost nets' – old or lost nets and fishing equipment that carries on capturing fish and other animals long after it has been lost at sea.
Funding for the ROV was covered by a generous donor who came forward after the work of Ullapool Sea Savers featured in a TV show alongside Prince William last year.
'A Planet for All' looked at local groups who were doing their bit to spread the word about the importance of conservation.
"We had hoped to have [Prince William] up snorkelling with the kids in the Wester Ross Marine Protected Area but corona stopped that being possible," added the spokesman
"The show still went ahead with a virtual meeting online and one of the people that watched it contacted us to offer some funding as [they] loved what the kids have been doing."
The arrival of their own ROV isn't the youngsters' first brush with this underwater technology. They visited The Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS) in Oban last year, where they enjoyed a tour of their facilities and what they do – including their ROV and robotics section.
Related news: WATCH: Ullapool Sea Savers feature in film throwing spotlight on pathway to ocean recovery plan
