Ocean Voyages Institute breaks records with the largest ocean clean-up in history

Ocean pollution has long been on top of the agenda for oceanographers. With plastic waste predicted to outnumber the marine life by 2040, oceanographers have undertaken it upon themselves to tackle the problem of plastic waste in the oceans more proactively.

Ocean Voyages Institute’s marine plastic recovery vessel, S/V KWAI, has completed a record-setting overhaul of over 340,000 pounds (170 tons) of plastic waste (including toxic plastic debris and ghost nets) from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (North Pacific Gyre, which is one of the most polluted areas of the ocean) in July 2020 – the largest ocean clean-up drive in history.

OVI’s S/V KWAI concluded its final recovery mission docked in Honoluluand now sets it target to outdo its previous record-setting clean-up with an ambitious initiative to undertake an open ocean clean-up drive that targets to pull out 1 million pounds of plastic waste from the ocean.

Ocean Voyages Institute’s ocean clean-up 48-days expedition began in May and was followed up with a second stint of 35-days that was launched on July 1^st. The KWAI had logged over 5000 nautical miles and made double trips from Hawaii to the Pacific Gyre this summer carrying the cargo of these plastic pollutants.

Despite the challenges faced owing to COVID-19 and funding gaps that almost brought the mission to a halt, the non-profit group and its crew have been able to accomplish a record-setting clean up, the largest in history. The team spent considerable time scanning the areas with the densest plastic debris concentration using GPS trackers and drones and managed to overhaul wastes, preventing them from degrading into damaging microplastics. The efforts have contributed in enhancing the ocean and marine health of the area.

In addition to these expeditions, the Ocean Voyages Institute is also researching on scaling up their plastic retrieval techniques and proper sorting and recycling of the collected trash. They aim to pilot more of such ocean-saving missions in other areas of the ocean.