ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Suction dredger

Do you know what a vacuum cleaner does? It sucks up all the dirt and dust from your house, right? Well, a suction dredger is kind of like a super-duper vacuum cleaner, but instead of cleaning your house, it cleans the bottom of the ocean or riverbed.

It is a big machine that sits on a ship or a barge in the water. It has a long arm with a hose attached to it, kind of like the trunk of an elephant. The hose is lowered into the water and the arm moves around to suck up sand, rocks, and mud from the bottom of the water body.

The dirt and mud that is sucked up by the suction dredger is then pumped through pipes to another location where it can be dumped safely. This process can help deepen the waterway, which allows bigger boats to travel through it. Or, it can be used to find gold or other valuable resources that might be at the bottom of a river.

So it is like a giant vacuum cleaner that helps clean the ocean or riverbed and remove things from it that can make navigation difficult for boats.