5 Non-Profit Organizations Protecting The Oceans

There are over 14 billion pounds of trash dumped into the ocean every year and a lot of that trash is plastic. Join us on our mission to eliminate single-use plastics by supporting some of the top ocean conservancies! These five organizations studying plastic pollution, spreading awareness about the plastic problem and cleaning up our oceans. Consider giving some love to our oceans by donating to one of these organizations!

1. Oceana

Oceana works to conserve and restore our world’s oceans. Oceana focuses on implementing policy changes that will help protect our oceans and maintain the diversity of the ocean ecosystems. One of Oceana’s most popular initiatives is “Save the Ocean, Feed the World”. This campaign is focused on protecting and restoring ocean biodiversity. If the oceans are restored, 1 billion people could be fed fish from our oceans!

Oceana campaigns directly in countries who control most of the world’s fish supply. They’ve seen policy change in Canada, Chile, Brazil and the Philippines. Oceana is spreading awareness and helping conserve and restore our oceans!

2. Lonely Whale

Lonely Whale is dedicated to driving awareness about ocean pollution and how human behavior contributes to ocean pollution. Lonely Whale works to show individual consumers how they can help change their habits to keep the ocean clean. Some of their campaigns include #StopSucking, Strawless in Seattle and Question How You Hydrate. The first two campaigns focused on single-use plastic straws. Over 500 million single-use plastic straws are used in just one day, and they end in landfills and our oceans! This campaign supported the Strawless in Seattle campaign to help change behavior and eliminate single-use plastic straws! Question How You Hydrate shed light on single-use plastic water bottles. One million plastic bottles are sold every minute and over 90% of plastic isn’t properly recycled. Lonely Whale is driving awareness and reminding us to love our oceans and #StopSucking.

3. Parley for the Oceans

Parley for the Oceans is dedicated to raising awareness around plastic pollution in our oceans. Parley has created a community and a space where artists, leaders, businesses and more can come together to raise awareness about pollution in our oceans, and help drive solutions to the pollution problem. Parley is working to change consumer behavior and drive consumers toward more sustainable options that can help keep our oceans clean. One of Parley’s campaigns is the A.I.R campaign. The campaign is focused on limiting plastic waste: Avoid plastic where possible, Intercepts plastic and Redesign plastic. Avoiding single-use plastic is core to Parley’s mission and educating yourself on recycling and composting is key to intercepting plastic that might be headed for landfills and oceans. Redesigning plastic is about redesigning society to use alternatives to plastic, as well as thinking through ways that plastic can be designed sustainably. Parley is spreading ocean love through collaboration and driving awareness.

4. 5 Gyres Institute

The 5 Gyres Institute was founded in 2009 by Anna Cummins and Marcus Erikson. The two are committed to helping solve the problems with ocean pollution through research and raising awareness. The 5 Gyres Institute is named after the five subtropical gyres in the ocean. Gyres are currents and wind patterns that create circular water patterns. Plastic and other trash gets caught in the 5 gyres, and creates what is referred to as plastic soup. There are microplastics and larger pieces of plastic and other trash that get stuck in the gyres.

The 5 Gyres Institute is dedicated to researching plastic pollution and using that research to create solutions. They have run expeditions all over the world, and published comprehensive findings on microplastics. The 5 Gyres Institute is helping educate us all about plastic pollution!

5. The Ocean Cleanup

The Ocean Cleanup is, as its name suggests, committed to cleaning up the oceans! The Ocean Cleanup created a vessel that passively cleans ocean pollution. They are focused on cleaning areas that have a high concentration of ocean pollution, like the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which is located in one of the five gyres. The Ocean Cleanup designed a system that will passively cleanup ocean pollution, that means they won’t use any active energy. Their system has an anchor on one end, and a buoyed net on the other end. They rely on ocean currents and wind to move the system to collect trash in the netted end. The Ocean Cleanup is still testing and improving the design of their system, but if they continue to see success, they estimate that they will be able to cleanup 90% of The Great Pacific Garbage Patch by 2040!