Why can't we make pumps that withstand salt, dammit. It seems pathetic.
How about like a medical pump? Have a flexible polyurethane tube that's squidged by cams to pump the seawater through it. The cams stay in the dry.
It has to handle solids. Something more like a sewage pump.
Just because we wants something doesn't mean we can have it, or at least not at a price we will accept.