WasteSharks are lurking in Toronto's harbour and cleaning up trash

Two newsharks are popping up in Toronto's harbour but it's garbage, not people, who should be afraid of heading into the water.

PortsToronto has brought in two WasteShark aquadrones to add to its larger trash trapping program.

"It's essentially a Roomba that operates on the surface of the water," said Jessica Pellerin, manager of media relations and public affairs for PortsToronto. "[It] cleans up microplastics, debris things that we don't want on the surface of the water and then we're able to dispose of it properly afterward."

The drones are manufactured by RanMarine, a company in the Netherlands which designs technology to monitor and clean waterways. Just like a flying drone, an operator onshore uses a remote controller to steer the device. Pellerin said that allows the operator to clean up the nooks and crannies along the dock walls.

It's just the latest technology PortsToronto is using to clean up the harbour. In 2019, it launched a network of seabins:floating garbage cans invented in Australia that suck in trash.

They're effective, Pellerin said taking out "hundreds of thousands" of pieces of plastic pollution but the aquadrones can provide a more targeted approach.

"It's a super exciting new piece of technology that we're looking forward to piloting here this summer."