In 2018, GoPro for a Cause championed The Ocean Cleanup, a non-profit organization with the objective of ridding the world's oceans of plastic. GoPro was there for the launch of The Ocean Cleanup's first ocean cleanup system, which was deployed from San Francisco Bay on a bold mission to clean up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. As of June 3, 2022, The Ocean Cleanup has removed more than 1.2M kg of trash from oceans and rivers worldwide.
And there's much more work to be done. The Ocean Cleanup aims to tackle 1,000 of the world's most polluting rivers in order to reduce the flow of plastic into the ocean.
The latest project is in Guatemala's Rio Motagua basin, where an unnatural phenomenon occurs during each year's rainy season. A trash tsunami propels enormous quantities of plastic into tributaries and rivers, and eventually into the Caribbean Sea. That's up to 20M kg of plastic flowing into the Caribbean Sea-every year.
The situation on the Rio Motagua calls for innovative ideas and a specific solution for a specific problem. The Ocean Cleanup is working with local authorities in the region to improve waste management and to stop the trash tsunami with a new system: the Interceptor Trashfence, which they have named Interceptor 006. On May 26, 2022, the Trashfence was given its first real-world test during the first flash flood of the rainy season.
The Ocean Cleanup crew members Florent Beauverd (Head of Creative and Documentary Productions) and Dan van der Kooy (Executive Producer of Documentary Content) take us behind the scenes to tell us more about this catastrophic yearly event, and what they're doing to stop the flow of plastic into the sea.
GoPro: Tell us about the trash tsunami. What causes it?
The Ocean Cleanup: The Rio Motagua is the largest river in Guatemala, stretching from the highlands in the west down to the Caribbean Sea in the east. What makes the Rio Motagua situation unique is that an urban landfill sits literally on top of one of its tributaries, the Rio Las Vacas. Like many other rivers in the region, the Rio Motagua also suffers from unlicensed waste dumping.
During the rainy season, these factors lead to exceptionally heavy flows of trash-a trash tsunami-flowing into the river every year, adding to the plastic pollution problem in the Caribbean Sea. We estimate that more than 20M kg of plastic flows through the Rio Motagua basin on an annual basis. This amounts to roughly 2% of the world's overall plastic emissions to the oceans.
What is the Interceptor Trashfence?
The Interceptor Trashfence is an experimental system developed to address the specific nature of the pollution problem in the Rio Las Vacas. Its a custom-engineered steel screen measuring a massive 50 meters wide, 8 meters tall and spanning the entire river gorge developed over several years with technical partners and local authorities. In May 2022, we began our first trial of the Interceptor Trashfence on the Rio Las Vacas tributary in the Rio Motagua Basin.
The Interceptor Trashfence faced its first trash tsunami on May 26. Initially the fence held back the torrent of plastic, but ultimately gave way under the heavy force of so much trash. However, we learned a huge amount from this first trial, and we always knew this would be an experimental process. We're going to optimize the design and deployment to improve the system and prevent these trash tsunamis reaching the oceans. For example, we're considering raising the height of the fence and potentially installing more than one Interceptor Trashfence system on the Rio Las Vacas.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by The Ocean Cleanup (@theoceancleanup)
--
Why did you choose GoPro?
For this specific project in Guatemala, we needed to find a way to capture on video an extremely sudden (and unpredictable) flash flood that generates a trash tsunami. Although this location is particularly difficult to get to, we needed to record high-quality footage to show the urgency of this phenomenon to the world, and how we are trying to tackle it. We relied on GoPros for this project for three reasons: simplicity of use, high quality of footage and reliability in all weather conditions.
We've been using GoPros for a wide variety of applications over the years, from getting impossible creative shots allowing us to visualize and share our work in more compelling ways to using GoPros as a scientific tool for gathering data. GoPro cameras have become part of our toolkit for understanding the problem of plastic pollution and visualizing how we solve it.
What's next for The Ocean Cleanup?
To rid the oceans of plastic, we need to clean up what is already out there and stop new plastic from entering the ocean-we need to close the tap. Working together with government leaders, individuals and private corporations, our goal is to tackle the 1,000 most polluting rivers all over the world.
More trash tsunamis will rush through the Rio Motagua throughout the rainy season. We're working with local authorities in the region to improve waste management and we will continue to improve our Interceptor Trashfence system to stop the flow of plastic to the Caribbean Sea.
How can the GoPro Community help The Ocean Cleanup tackle this issue?
Supporters are welcome to learn about our Interceptor Trashfence project in Guatemala by reading this update. You can also track our worldwide impact in real time. And you can donate to The Ocean Cleanup here.
You can learn more about getting involved with GoPro for a Cause here.
Most recent headlines
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
06/12/2025
In a live broadcast from the Reagan National Defense Forum, L3Harris Chair and CEO Christopher Kubasik joined Morgan Brennan on CNBCs Closing Bell: Overtime. Ku...
06/12/2025
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. A new survey from Pixitmedia by Datacore revealed a major shift in the Media & Entertainment industry in media archiving, with 85% of resp...
06/12/2025
HACKENSACK, N.J. LiveU has announced that the national public broadcaster Czech Television has completed one of the largest LiveU live production deployments fo...
06/12/2025
NEW YORK The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) presented the Excellence in Production Technology Emmy Award to NASA+ and Dr. Tom Leight...
05/12/2025
2025 Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame: Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nati...
05/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Veritone's Sean King on the Power of Mining Video, Audio DataThe company's Data Refinery offers users total control and governance over da...
05/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: Inside the Nashville Predators' Unified, Flexible, Sca...
05/12/2025
Netflix Reaches Agreement To Acquire Warner Bros. Following Planned WBD SplitThe deal does not include WBDs sports assets like TNT Sports (US, UK, LatAm), Euros...
05/12/2025
FOX Sports Returns to Indianapolis for Primetime Broadcast of Big Ten Championsh...
05/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Digital Engagement & Monetization Workshop Tackles the ...
05/12/2025
Atlanta United Lights Up New Emory Healthcare Studio With First Live Broadcast f...
05/12/2025
As Messi Takes the Pitch, MLS, Apple, NEP Roll Out Largest MLS Cup Production Ev...
05/12/2025
ESPN Enters College Football's Most Intense Month With Elevated Workflows fo...
05/12/2025
It's about that time! Awards season is in full swing, and the Film Independe...
05/12/2025
Every year, Spotify Wrapped offers a personalized look back at the audio that defined your year. It's a snapshot of your listening habits, designed to tell ...
05/12/2025
In 2025, Spotify's EQUAL, GLOW, and RADAR programs celebrated women, LGBTQIA , and emerging artists who turned moments into milestones. From breaking record...
05/12/2025
In our latest blog, we explain how Wi-Fi 7 rollouts can drive consumer loyalty with value-add services such as consumer cybersecurity. We also explore how this ...
05/12/2025
LOS ANGELES Netflix announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Nielsens Gracenote has launched Gracenote Content Connect, a new ad platform that provides agencies, brands, supply-side platforms (SSPs) and demand-si...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK In an most important update to the workings of deal-based programmatic advertising, IAB Tech Lab has released version 1.0 of its Deals API for public c...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Pass the turkey. Pass the stuffing. Pass the cranberry sauce. All are common requests of Americans celebrating Thanksgiving Day with family and f...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. Netflix announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has approved AT&T's $1.02 billion acquisition of spectrum from UScellular in a decision that was issued sho...
05/12/2025
The Best Coldplay Songs: 21 Tracks That Shoot for the Stars From Yellow to Viva La Vida, Fix You to Paradise, this playlist goes back to the start.
December ...
05/12/2025
Zafris Lecture Series Brings Nabil Ayers to Berklee The 32nd annual James G. Zafris Distinguished Lecture series was held on Thursday, November 13, with guest...
05/12/2025
Back to All News
Netflix Unveils the First Look for Land of Sin' - Premier...
05/12/2025
Introducing New Perks to Help You Get Even More from LinkedIn Premium Published on Dec 5, 2025 Categories: Company News, Product News
LinkedIn Corporate Co...
05/12/2025
Friday 5 December 2025
A new Game of Thrones Tale: Official trailer for Sky Exc...
05/12/2025
Back to All News
Don Lee, Lee Jin-uk, and Lalisa Manobal to Star in Netflix Act...
05/12/2025
Tis the season of giving once again and this year we've taken our Give Back Fridays' concept and turned it on its head.
In the autumn we were approach...
05/12/2025
Brayden Gogis doesn't remember a time when he wasn't completely fixated on games in all forms. In preschool, when they asked us to dress up as what we ...
05/12/2025
The Grinch steals the spotlight as the theme for The Late Late Toy Show 2025
Tune in tonight at 9:35pm on RT One and worldwide on RT Player
#LateLateToyShow...
05/12/2025
RT Announces New Presenters of Flagship News Programmes
New RT Six One News co-presenter Tommy Meskill
Sarah McInerney & Justin McCarthy join Morning Ir...
04/12/2025
ToolsOnAir Blackmagic Design HyperDeck Event Presets for just:in mac pro 2025 & ...
04/12/2025
ToolsOnAir AJA Ki Pro Event Presets for just:in mac pro 2025 & just:in linux
More Details:Starting with version 5.5, both just:in mac pro and just:in linux sol...
04/12/2025
Wangu Kanuri from Kenya and Godwin Asediba from Ghana are two of this years finalists for Thomsons Young Journalist of the Year Award. The pair are runners-up i...
04/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: ProximaVision's Claudio Lisman on Why Tethered Drones Could Be...
04/12/2025
SVG Campus Shot Callers: Imry Halevi, Senior Associate Director of Athletics, Co...
04/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: LiveU Lightweight Sports Production: A Step Change in Spor...
04/12/2025
London to Riyadh: DAZN brings the boxing glamour to new production levels for Be...
04/12/2025
Analysis: Paramount bets on the battering ram' with Champions League play By Callum McCarthy, Editor-at-Large
Tuesday, December 2, 2025 - 10:12
Print ...
04/12/2025
Space City Home Network Launches SCHN DTC App for Astros and RocketsThe Rockets and Astros were previously the lone NBA and MLB teams without a DTC appBy Jason...
04/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Content Workflows Workshop Spotlights Evolution of Spor...
04/12/2025
New Sponsor Spotlight: Geotech's Patrick Wambold On the Unreal Engine Revolu...
04/12/2025
Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nationally and RegionallyBy Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S.
Thursday, December 4, 2025 - 1:52 pm
Print This Sto...
04/12/2025
(L-R) Rebecca Lichtenfeld, Mohammadreza Eyni, Sara Khaki, and Judith Helfand att...
In 2018, GoPro for a Cause championed The Ocean Cleanup, a non-profit organization with the objective of ridding the world's oceans of plastic. GoPro was there for the launch of The Ocean Cleanup's first ocean cleanup system, which was deployed from San Francisco Bay on a bold mission to clean up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. As of June 3, 2022, The Ocean Cleanup has removed more than 1.2M kg of trash from oceans and rivers worldwide.
