Sir Richard Branson video on Plastic Pollution in the Ocean

Sir Richard Branson: "Plastic pollution in the ocean is a major global problem"

Video above published Jan 24, 2017: Sir Richard Branson praises our #OceanRescue campaign, and says a deposit return scheme is “a fantastic idea, and one that should be encouraged.”

Marine Debris Program | marinedebris.noaa.gov: "... The debris is continuously mixed by wind and wave action and widely dispersed both over huge surface areas and throughout the top portion of the water column. It is possible to sail through the “garbage patch” area and see very little or no debris on the water’s surface. It is also difficult to estimate the size of these “patches,” because the borders and content constantly change with ocean currents and winds. Regardless of the exact size, mass, and location of the “garbage patch,” manmade debris does not belong in our oceans and waterways and must be addressed ..."

Plastic is killing marine wildlife | #OceanRescue

Video above published Jan 23, 2017: Plastic in our oceans is killing marine wildlife at a staggering rate.

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Saving The World's Oceans, Role of Oceans in Climate Change (videos)

How To Save The World's Oceans:

Dr Enric Sala is a Marine Ecologist and Explorer in Residence at National Geographic. He explains why the health of the oceans is directly linked to climate change, and what their impact on humanity could be. Video published Sep 16, 2016

The Role Of The Oceans In Climate Change:

A new study has warned that humans could be responsible for bringing about the sixth mass extinction of marine life. Jonathan Pershing, the U.S. Special Envoy for Climate Change, explains the role of the oceans in climate change. Video published Sep 16, 2016 

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Ocean Pollution Harming Humans, Oceans Week Videos

Ocean Pollution Harming Humans:

A leading scientist has told Sky News that the millions of tonnes of plastic pollution floating in the world's oceans could pose a threat to human health. Published on Jul 26, 2016

Oceans Week Video Playlist:

• Scientists Give The World's Oceans A Health Check 3:38
• Why Our Oceans Matter 1:02
• Why Our Oceans Are Under Threat 0:58
• Plastic In The Food Chain 1:23
• Ocean Pollution Harming Humans 3:47

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Ocean Currents, Friendly Floatees, Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Garbage Island: An Ocean Full of Plastic (Parts 1-3):

Video playlist above (3 videos): Vice sails to the North Pacific Gyre, collecting point for all of the ocean's flotsam and home of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch: a mythical, Texas-sized island made entirely of our trash. Come aboard as we take a cruise to the Northern Gyre in the Pacific Ocean, a spot where currents spin and cycle, churning up tons of plastic into a giant pool of chemical soup, flecked with bits and whole chunks of refuse that cannot biodegrade. Hosted by Thomas Morton @Babyballs69 | Originally aired in 2008 on VICE.com

Travel patterns of the Friendly Floatees. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

Friendly Floatees are plastic bath toys marketed by The First Years, Inc. and made famous by the work of Curtis Ebbesmeyer, an oceanographer who models ocean currents on the basis of flotsam movements including those of a consignment of Friendly Floatees, containing 29,000 plastic yellow ducks, red beavers, blue turtles and green frogs, washed into the Pacific Ocean in 1992. Some of the toys landed along Pacific Ocean shores, like Hawaii. Others traveled over 17,000 miles, floating over the site where the Titanic sank, and spent years frozen in Arctic ice to reach the Eastern Seaboard, British and Irish shores 15 years later in 2007 - Wikipedia.

"[T]he North Pacific Gyre is home to what has been called the Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch, a massive island of floating debris, mostly plastic, that the gyre stirs like a giant pot of trashy soup. Though the rubber ducks (Friendly Floatees) have helped raise awareness about the gyre, most of what makes up the garbage patch is hardly so cute. Most of it consists of tiny plastic fragments and chemical sludge, but just about anything discarded that floats can be found there. Some of the trash got there the same way the rubber duckies did, via lost shipping crates. Though no one knows exactly how many shipping containers are lost at sea every year, oceanographers put the figure at anything from several hundred to 10,000 a year, a startling estimate, though still only a tiny part of a global trash problem."--What can 28,000 rubber duckies lost at sea teach us about our oceans? | MNN.com - Mother Nature Network

NOAA: Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Great Pacific garbage patch | Wikipedia: "The Great Pacific garbage patch was described in a 1988 paper published by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of the United States. The description was based on results obtained by several Alaska-based researchers between 1985 and 1988 that measured neustonic plastic in the North Pacific Ocean. Researchers found high concentrations of marine debris accumulating in regions governed by ocean currents. Extrapolating from findings in the Sea of Japan, the researchers hypothesized that similar conditions would occur in other parts of the Pacific where prevailing currents were favorable to the creation of relatively stable waters. They specifically indicated the North Pacific Gyre. Charles J. Moore, returning home through the North Pacific Gyre after competing in the Transpac sailing race in 1999, claimed to have come upon an enormous stretch of floating debris. Moore alerted the oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer, who subsequently dubbed the region the "Eastern Garbage Patch" (EGP). The area is frequently featured in media reports as an exceptional example of marine pollution."

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Rio 2016: Why Rio Isn't Ready for the Summer Olympics (video)

Why Rio Isn't Ready for the Summer Olympics:

Rio de Janeiro is the first South American city to host the Olympics, but preparing the host city hasn't been easy. From construction delays to Zika virus, the WSJ’s Eva Tam explains five issues Rio is facing before the Games. Published Aug 2, 2016 by WSJ.com.  See also: Rio 2016: Olympic sailing ramp collapses as athletes' village chief is fired over 'unsafe' conditions and hotel fire | Olympics | Sport | The Independent. See also JohnTheCrowd | Sailing News: 2016 Olympics
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A look back--Bids for the 2016 Summer Olympics | Wikipedia.org: At the 121st IOC (International Olympic Committee) Session in Copenhagen, Denmark on October 2, 2009, final voting took place:

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Sailing In Pollution Fight, Sailors for the Sea, 11th Hour Racing

“It’s way worse than any of these people imagine,” said Ian Walker, the British skipper and former Olympic silver medalist who won the Volvo Ocean Race in June on Abu Dhabi. “People think the pollution in Rio’s in the harbor, and it’s fine out at Copacabana and on the open sea. But I remember sailing in from the ocean, and when you are about 50 miles out, you hit the stench and the changing color in the water. So even the people who go in the water swimming off Copacabana beach every day are basically swimming in filth, but they don’t realize it.” (source: NYTimes, infra)

In Pollution Fight, Sailing World Has Just Scratched Surface - The New York Times: “We need a leader like Sailors for the Sea or other organizations to help get us all together,” he said as he prepared for his second Sydney-Hobart."

Environmental groups linked closely with the sport of sailing are already focused on ocean health. Those include two based in Newport: Sailors for the Sea, founded by David Rockefeller Jr., and 11th Hour Racing, co-founded by the philanthropist Wendy Schmidt and her husband, Eric Schmidt, Google’s executive chairman, via the Schmidt Family Foundation.

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Rocking the Boat and 11th Hour Racing -
Published on Dec 17, 2015 - Short video highlighting 11th Hour Racing's grantee Rocking the Boat.

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Race For Water Foundation, R4WO, Stopover in Rio de Janeiro video

Race For Water Foundation, R4WO, Stopover in Rio de Janeiro video - Published on Nov 18, 2015: Initiated by the Race for Water Foundation, the Race for Water Odyssey is an environmental expedition which aims to assess plastic pollution in the oceans. In the South Atlantic Ocean, the teams of the expedition stopped in Rio de Janeiro and interviewed local people to understand how pollution affects this part of the world, from an economical point of view among others


R4WO - AZORES TO BERMUDAS LEG - Published on Apr 6, 2015: The "Race for Water Odyssey" (R4WO) is an expedition that aims to reach the beaches of islands located in the ocean's 5 vortexes of trash, in order to conduct the first global assessment of plastic pollution in oceans, and highlight its consequences on the populations. All this, in a record time of under 300 days, thanks to a racing trimaran, the "MOD70 Race for Water". R4WO hopes to find answers to this question, which represents the worst ecological catastrophe in history.


R4WO - CAPSIZE OF THE MOD70 RACE FOR WATER (EN) Published on Sep 23, 2015: On her way from the Koror Islands to Chagos Islands, in the Indian Ocean, the MOD70 trimaran "Race for Water" capsized on Saturday 12th of September at 8:15PM (GMT +1), 90 miles South East from the Chagos Archipelago. As they were navigating by night with 18 to 20 knots of wind, a strong gust of wind turned the boat over.

News - Race for Water: "The Race for Water Odyssey (R4WO) is back in Bordeaux to conclude this unprecedented human and scientific adventure started in the same city on 15 March. In nine months, the R4WO has made 17 stops in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian to explore, analyze and raise awareness of water pollution by plastic. A first observation, dramatic: the plastic pollutes everywhere. After traveling more than 32,000 miles across three oceans, sampled many beaches, encountered a thousand personalities, and experienced the painful ordeal of a capsize, environmental expedition found today the city starting its journey . In Bordeaux, it makes an initial assessment of these 9 months of data collection on plastic pollution and personalities and the public awareness about the urgency of action. Using a standardized protocol, based on that of NOAA, the expedition teams have sampled over 30 beaches, located in five major waste accumulation areas. The various partner institutions such as the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (Switzerland), the University of Bordeaux (France) and the University of Fribourg (Switzerland) are currently analyzing the collected samples. For their part, the Duke University and Oregon State (USA) study images taken by the drone of senseFly eBee company. Results are expected in 2016...."

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