A boat for cleaning up the marina (LNC - 17/02/12 - Caroline CONTE)

Soon, fishing rubbish out the marina waters with a hand-net will be a thing of the past. Early this year, SODEMO ordered the construction of a craft specially designed for dealing with the floating rubbish which has plagued the port for years. The new vessel should begin its clean-up operations in Port Moselle in June.

Construction of the craft is scheduled to begin by the end of February. Until now, and after every westerly wind event, the marina staff has had to cruise the waters of the port daily, armed with scoop nets, to pick up all manner of floating junk. This helped, but was not enough. Port Moselle manager Sébastien Fellmann is looking forward to the delivery of the new "hoover-craft". Says Fellmann "It was just too much trouble collecting all the empty bottles, plastic bags and other floating trash by hand, one piece at a time. We really needed to find a solution to the problem of keeping the port clean."

Pollution : SODEMO decided to use local firms to put together the project, namely Laubreaux Marine and Naval Solutions naval architects. The twin-hulled, eight meters long, two and a half meters wide, all aluminium craft should be operational by June this year. It is designed to act as a vacuum cleaner, collecting solid floating pollution and oil slicks. Sébastien Fellmann says that he insisted that the craft be fitted with the least polluting marine engines available; he adds "we couldn't very well use a pedal-operated boat – we had to have engines!".

Partnership : the Municipality of Noumea, Total (a petroleum company) and BNP (a bank) formed a partnership to finance the project. Together, they contributed eleven million Pacific Francs (about 92,000 €) to the construction of the craft. "The aim was to make sure all concerned parties had an interest in the project; this can be very good for their image, among other things" says Fellmann, who is considering also the possibility of lending the craft occasionally to other operators to help clean up marinas or beaches. "This boat will serve everybody's interests – we are in the same business after all". The manager of Port Moselle wants to go further: he would like to collaborate with SIPRES, the government department in charge of inspection and prevention of environmental and health hazards, to monitor water quality in the harbour.