Ocean Voyages Institute Gets Grant To Clean Up Ocean Plastic

The  Ocean Voyages Institute has received a $25,000 challenge grant, from the Fort Lauderdale-based Mission Resolve Foundation which will go towards OCI’s second clean-up expedition.

Challenge grants are intended to get sponsors to join in funding this project. The first-leg of the clean up included collaborations with major organizations like NASA, Smithsonian, Scripps Oceanography, The University of Hawaii, and The University of Washington. That trip recently returned from Hawaii, containing 103 tons of fishing nets and consumer plastics. That expedition set the record for the largest ocean clean-up ever conducted.

In a press release Mary T. Crowley, Founder and Executive Director of the Ocean Voyages Institute spoke on this challenge grant being awarded to OVI:

“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 is also a founding member of the Mission Resolve Foundation and has been recognized as a pioneer of large-scale clean-up of toxic plastic in the ocean.

Mission Resolve Foundation Co-Founder Joseph Farrell II, also spoke on this challenge grant being awarded:

We’re honored to support Ocean Voyages Institute on this critically important ocean plastic cleanup work.

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.

Ocean Voyages was started over 40 years ago, and in that time it has provided sail programs, engaged with high-school and college campuses in marine biology, and collaborated with various nonprofits on a variety of missions including “maritime arts and sciences, ocean environment, and island cultures“. OVI started ocean cleanups expeditions in 2009, on nonprofit’s brigantine KAISEI, and is actively looking for global trash cleanups.

Featured Grant

California, Maryland, and Virginia nonprofit organizations in eligible watershed regions can apply for a grant of up to $25,000 for projects that preserve and enhance oceanic ecosystems, improve water quality, and protect the environment. Funding is intended for all types of programs and subject areas that improve conditions in the Chesapeake and Atlantic Coastal Bays, the Northern California watershed, and the San Fransisco Bay watershed.