Re:Shipping containers are falling overboard at a rapid rate
by pengaru on Thursday April 29, 2021 @08:40PM
(#26988631)
Just because there's an entire container ship worth of containers floating in the ocean doesn't mean you have to retrieve all of them...
Re:Shipping containers are falling overboard at a rapid rate
by fuzxi on Thursday April 29, 2021 @08:46PM
(#26988664)
His point is that container losses happen in bursts, so you'd spend a lot of time idle while waiting for a container loss. If you can't pick up enough of those containers, you'd be losing money to keep your ship ready-to-go.
Re:Shipping containers are falling overboard at a rapid rate
by edoceo on Thursday April 29, 2021 @08:26PM
(#26988531)
deep sea robot recovery for materials recovery/recycling? likely not profitable now but, well, time makes fools of us all.
Re:Shipping containers are falling overboard at a rapid rate
by elihu on Thursday April 29, 2021 @11:00PM
(#26989458)
I'd guess that the median economic value of the contents of some random container that's been saturated in sea water is probably pretty low. The container itself is worth a bit if it's still usable as a container, otherwise it's what it's worth as scrap metal.
I'm having trouble imagining many things that would still be valuable. Even things in sealed containers might be crushed by the water pressure. Other than gold bars, what would still be useful? Construction-grade lumber, maybe?
I could imagine this being a rich person's hobby. And maybe the basis of a Netflix series or something, like shows about the gold miners in Alaska.
I'm assuming that if it sinks in deep water it's gone, but even there maybe there's an opportunity to salvage containers off the sea floor with the right equipment. Probably not worthwhile economically, but who knows?
Maybe the best case for this could be made for ships that normally at sea doing other things to be ready to divert from their ordinary tasks to collect containers if they don't have anything more pressing. (Coast Guard ships or Navy support vessels perhaps?)