“In 2014, World Animal Protection estimated, conservatively, that ghost gear killed 136,000 seals, sea lions, and whales every year”
Key article: Plastic waste inputs from land into the ocean
https://science.sciencemag.org/content/347/6223/768
Plastic debris in the marine environment is widely documented, but the quantity of plastic entering the ocean from waste generated on land is unknown. By linking worldwide data on solid waste, population density, and economic status, we estimated the mass of land-based plastic waste entering the ocean. We calculate that 275 million metric tons (MT) of plastic waste was generated in 192 coastal countries in 2010, with 4.8 to 12.7 million MT entering the ocean. Population size and the quality of waste management systems largely determine which countries contribute the greatest mass of uncaptured waste available to become plastic marine debris (China, Indonesia and a few other south-east Asian countries are responsible for releasing the vast majority of it). Without waste management infrastructure improvements, the cumulative quantity of plastic waste available to enter the ocean from land is predicted to increase by an order of magnitude by 2025.
Biography of Boyan Slat
Boyan Slat (27 July 1994) is a Dutch inventor and entrepreneur who creates technological solutions to global problems. He is the founder and CEO of The Ocean Cleanup; a Dutch foundation which develops advanced systems to rid world’s oceans of plastic.
At the age of 18, Boyan devised a concept which utilises the natural oceanic forces to passively catch and concentrate ocean plastic, through which the theoretical cleanup time could be reduced from millennia to mere years. In February 2013 he dropped out of his Aerospace Engineering study at TU Delft to start The Ocean Cleanup.
As The Ocean Cleanup’s CEO, Boyan currently gives lead to a team of about 80 people, but spends most of his time on research and engineering, through which he co-authored about a dozen scientific papers and multiple patents.
After 4 years of reconnaissance expeditions, testing and many design iterations, on September 8 2018 the world’s first ocean cleanup system was launched from San Francisco, soon after followed by deployment inside the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
Articles:
2020
Plastic superhighway: the awful truth of our hidden ocean waste [16.06.2020]
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jun/16/plastic-knows-no-borders-the-manmade-scourge-washing-up-on-the-worlds-shores?CMP=share_btn_tw
Microplastic pollution in oceans vastly underestimated – study [22.05.2020]
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/may/22/microplastic-pollution-in-oceans-vastly-underestimated-study
Tackling the Great Pacific Garbage Patch with The Ocean Cleanup Project [27.04.2020]
https://www.azocleantech.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=1071
The Ocean Cleanup updates on the development of System 002 [10.04.2020]
https://www.offshore-energy.biz/the-ocean-cleanup-updates-on-the-development-of-system-002/
2019
The Ocean Cleanup Reveals Successful Catch in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch [16.10.2019]
https://www.greenmatters.com/p/ocean-cleanup-success
Ocean cleanup device successfully collects plastic for first time [3.10.2019]
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/03/ocean-cleanup-device-successfully-collects-plastic-for-first-time
A floating device created to clean up plastic from the ocean is finally doing its job, organizers say [3.10.2019]
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/10/02/tech/ocean-cleanup-catching-plastic-scn-trnd/index.html
The Ocean Cleanup Is Capturing Plastic, Prepping A Larger Trash-Collecting System [2.10.2019]
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffkart/2019/10/02/the-ocean-cleanup-is-capturing-plastic-prepping-a-larger-trash-collecting-system/#7c47918074e5
A 25-year-old’s mission to clean up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch relies on a giant plastic-cleaning device. Here’s how it works. [13.09.2019]
https://www.businessinsider.com/how-boyan-slats-ocean-cleanup-device-works-2019-9?IR=T
Why so many of us wanted to believe in the ocean cleanup
https://www.theverge.com/2019/1/9/18175940/ocean-cleanup-breaks-plastic-pollution-silicon-valley-boyan-slat-wilson
2019 THE OCEAN CLEANUP PROJECTS
http://www.oceansplasticleanup.com/Cleaning_Up_Operations/The_Ocean_Cleanup/2019_Wilson_San_Francisco_Great_Garbage_Patch_SeaTrials_The_Ocean_Cleanup_Projects.htm
2018
After Successful Trials, Maersk Launcher Towing First Ocean Cleanup System to Great Pacific Garbage Patch [3.10.2018]
https://gcaptain.com/after-successful-trials-maersk-launcher-towing-first-ocean-cleanup-system-to-great-pacific-garbage-patch/
Ocean Cleanup Launches Marine Plastic Collection Trial [13.09.2018]
http://sdg.iisd.org/news/ocean-cleanup-launches-marine-plastic-collection-trial/
Video: The Ocean Cleanup Trial Success [10.7.2018]
https://www.maritime-executive.com/article/video-the-ocean-cleanup-trial-success
2014
INTERVIEW: Boyan Slat, Teenage Inventor of the Ocean Cleanup Array [10.10.2014]
https://inhabitat.com/interview-boyan-slat-teenage-inventor-of-the-ocean-cleanup-array/
Meet Boyan Slat, the garbage patch kid [13.08.2014]
https://www.mnn.com/leaderboard/stories/meet-boyan-slat-the-garbage-patch-kid
Videos:
Other organisations
The Ocean Legacy Foundation
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/oceanlegacy
Website: https://oceanlegacy.ca/
We are a Canadian based, internationally recognized NON-PROFIT organization that has developed a world leading PLASTIC POLLUTION EMERGENCY RESPONSE™ program called EPIC. This dynamic and INTEGRATIVE approach combines 4 main components; EDUCATION, POLICY, INFRASTRUCTURE and CLEANUP. Our goal is to give plastic waste an ECONOMIC VALUE to stimulate the plastic circular economy and provide communities the LONG-TERM TOOLS they need to STEWARD THEIR ENVIRONMENT keeping PLASTIC OUT OF THE OCEANS.
Books
The Imperilled Ocean
by Laura Trethewey
The Imperiled Ocean: Human Stories from a Changing Sea is my first book. It’s a collection of non-fiction essays about what people do on and in the ocean. Pegasus Books (stateside) will publish The Imperiled Ocean in November, 2019, and Goose Lane Editions (Canada) will follow in February, 2020.
I also write for Hakai Magazine, The Walrus, and other online and print publications.
I’ve written professionally for over a decade. I was the Senior Writer and Editor for The Vancouver Aquarium’s storytelling website Ocean.org where I wrote and produced weekly videos about the sea. I was also the editor of the indie arts magazines Broken Pencil (Toronto) and Boulderpavement (RIP), run by the Banff Centre for the Arts.
In 2017, I finished my Master’s of Fine Arts with the University of British Columbia’s Creative Writing Program.
I live in San Diego, where I teach creative writing classes at the San Diego Writers Ink. I’m from Canada originally and I’ve lived in Toronto, Halifax, Vancouver, and Banff, as well as Edinburgh and Glasgow, Scotland.
