RECORD-BREAKING OCEAN PLASTIC REMOVAL MISSION RECEIVES MAJOR DONATION AS A CHALLENGE GRANT

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Mission Resolve Foundation announced today it has gifted Ocean Voyages Institute $25,000 as a challenge grant to other sponsors to join them in their support of their critical upcoming second clean-up expedition. The highly successful first leg of this clean-up expedition includes collaborating organizations such as NASA, Smithsonian, Scripps Oceanography, University of Hawaii, and University of Washington. The expedition returned to Hawaii from the North Pacific Sub-Tropical Convergence Zone on June 23rd, pulling 103 tons of fishing nets and consumer plastics and having set a record for the largest open ocean clean-up that has ever been done.

Mission Resolve will continue to highlight the ongoing and crucial ocean plastic clean-up work being conducted by Ocean Voyages Institute (OVI). The missions are personally coordinated by Mary T. Crowley, Founder and Executive Director of 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 our 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,” says Crowley.

This $25,000 matching challenge grant donated by Mission Resolve Foundation provides necessary funding to help make this second 2020 clean-up voyage to the Gyre possible and enables OVI to increase the amount of plastic it is removing from the ocean this year. The length of this second summer leg will be determined by how successful Ocean Voyages Institute is in securing additional donations. “We’re honored to support Ocean Voyages Institute on this critically important ocean plastic cleanup work,” said Mission Resolve Foundation Co-Founder Joseph Farrell II, who is also the Founder and CEO of Resolve Marine, one of the world’s largest marine salvage/ship rescue, artificial reef deployment and emergency and environmental response companies. “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 currently underway to deploy Mission Resolve Foundation’s 216-foot Humanitarian and Environmental Response Vessel, the Lana Rose, in OVI’s 2021 clean-up expedition. This will significantly scale these marine plastic clean-up operations and make an even greater impact. The Lana Rose will also provide extensive media and educational components to these ongoing expeditions through an onboard broadcast facility and live streaming capabilities.

For more information on how you and/or your organization can join Mission Resolve Foundation

with a matching grant, other donations or sponsorship opportunities please contact Amanda Martin, Director of Communications at (239) 370-8696 or Amanda@missionresolve.org.