Ocean plastic removal program gets grant

Jul 6, 2020 by Triton Staff

Photos by Lockhart Maclean

Fort Lauderdale-based Mission Resolve Foundation has gifted Ocean Voyages Institute $25,000 as a challenge grant in support of its upcoming second clean-up expedition.

The first leg of this clean-up expedition returned to Hawaii from the North Pacific Sub-Tropical Convergence Zone on June 23, pulling 103 tons of fishing nets and consumer plastics out of the ocean. That was a record for the largest open ocean clean-up ever done, the group said in a statement.

The clean-up missions are coordinated by Mary T. Crowley, founder and executive director of Ocean Voyages Institute (OVI) based in Sausalito, California. Crowley is also a founding member of the Mission Resolve Foundation, and, for over a decade has been internationally recognized as a pioneer of large-scale clean-up of toxic plastic in the oceans.

“We know existing maritime equipment can be used successfully by re-purposing and innovating to accomplish extremely effective clean-up of the proliferating poisonous plastics in our global ocean,” Crowley stated.

The $25,000 matching challenge grant donated by Mission Resolve Foundation provides money for a second 2020 clean-up voyage to the Gyre. The length of this second leg will be determined by how successful OVI is in securing additional donations.

“We’re honored to support Ocean Voyages Institute on this critically important ocean plastic clean-up work,” said Mission Resolve Foundation Co-Founder Joseph Farrell II, who is also founder and CEO of Resolve Marine, a marine salvage/ship rescue, artificial reef deployment and emergency and environmental response company. “Our support of this mission through our challenge grant highly encourages all other like-minded individuals and organizations to join us in helping to immediately fund these imperative clean-up efforts.”

Plans are underway to deploy Mission Resolve Foundation’s 216-foot M/V Lana Rose in OVI’s 2021 clean-up expedition.

For more information, visit www.OceanVoyagesInstitute.org.