At the start of March there was an AVAAZ campaign to raise funds to turn a prototype ocean plastic vacuum cleaner into a full size working ship. In just two weeks 50,000 AVAAZ supporters donated sufficient funds for  robotic development, tank testing and more public awareness raising events and the call for funding has been closed. More details here.

Here is what AVAAZ had to say about the project:

A shocking new study says that by 2050 there will be more plastic in our oceans than fish.

What we're doing to our planet is just obscene. It might shake our faith in humanity. But then you hear about Terry, Christina, and Chris -- 3 friends who read about the plastic problem and the Great Pacific garbage patch -- a vast semi-dissolved island of waste twice the size of France.

They were disgusted, and invented a simple solution -- the SeaVax, a solar-powered ship that can suck up to 22 million kgs of plastic a year! Just a small number of these ships could clean up the entire Pacific garbage patch in just 10 years!!

It's a beautiful example of people rising to a great challenge of our time. But it's just begun, and it needs our help. The first SeaVax model has been built, but needs funding to scale it up to the awesome task of the world's greatest clean-up.