Films
Monteleone being interviewed by director Craig Leeson aboard RV Tui Tai, Fiji.
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In 2009, former BBC underwater producer, Jo Ruxton, set her sights on filming a full-length, major motion picture on plastics in the marine environment. Her dream realized when A Plastic Ocean hits the silver screen in 2017. Plastic Ocean Project is proud to have contributed to this project sharing our expertise while filming in Fiji in 2012. Also highlighted in the film, video documented evidence of plastic ingested by zooplankton, the smallest animal in the ocean, conducted at University of North Carolina Wilmington by Susanne Brander, PhD. and Alison Taylor, PhD. The award-winning film has premiered around the world, a top seller on iTunes, and is now available on Netflix.
Now the team is shifting the focus toward the N. Atlantic with wildlife photographers, Jason Andre, Matt McCoy, and Bonnie Monteleone , featured in the internationally award winning documentary If the Ocean Could Talk. This film will highlight the spectacularly unique characters living in the N. Atlantic, the ocean characteristics that provide its diversity, and the stress we all put on this region, including plastic pollution. We explore what the ocean would say if we could give it a voice. Garth Stevenson will be speaking whale with his 150 year old bass and along with experts like Sylvia Earle,PhD., Carl Safina, PhD., potentially David Attenborough, and ocean experts around the world. We will offer sound solutions empowering people to know exactly what to do to save the sea and the economies that rely upon it. We are looking for sponsors, ships of opportunity, and footage to get this film in post-production by the end of 2020. |
Microscopic FTIR
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As we continue to analyze microplastics in watersheds, sea salt, fish gastrointestinal tracts, and North Pacific gyre samples, we took out a $93,000 loan for a vital instrument that allows us to provide a service to local businesses, Algalita Marine Research Foundation, NC State, and Waterkeepers. This instrument allows us to positively identify natural debris from man-made debris improving the accuracy of our analysis. This instrument will be accessible to high school students, PhD students, and other nonprofit organizations. Please consider sponsoring this important instrument.
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Trees4Trash
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Due to the increasing frequency of super storms, communities are losing their old growth trees at an alarming rate. These storms also compound the amount of manmade debris entering our rivers, waterways, and oceans. Trees help slow down the progression of storms inland, reducing the number of buildings destroyed. Furthermore, trees reduce carbon dioxide and are among our greatest defense against climate change. Trees4Trash addresses two major environmental issues. Plastic Ocean Project, Inc. is planting 1 hardwood tree for every 25 lbs. of trash we remove from the SE North Carolina coastal environment.
What makes this project innovative is the ability to address two major issues at once, climate change and manmade debris removal. Because we work so closely with schools, it provides a great learning opportunity about marine debris while incorporating how to plant trees and why it is important. |
Fishing4Plastic
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The Plastic Ocean Project is teaming up with charter boat captains, fishermen, and local non-profits to host annual Fishing4Plastic tournaments. These events are an opportunity to bring volunteers out to witness the plastic pollution problem off the NC coast and to be a part of the solution, by fishing for plastics! Volunteers retrieve plastic trash from the surface waters and sargassum mats of the Gulf Stream. The recovered plastics are incorporated into an ongoing research study of the types of plastics found off the NC coast. Learn more, join the next F4P tournament, and/or support our efforts through the link below!
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Outreach
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The traveling art exhibit, "What Goes Around, Comes Around," is a Plastic Ocean Project art initiative to bring awareness regarding the problems with overuse of one-time use plastics, why it matters, and what can be done about it. Collecting plastics from nearly 10,000 nautical miles in three oceans, the art consists of plastic items morphed into the famous print, "The Great Wave of Kanagawa" by Katsushika Hokusai circa 1830. It systematically illustrates how the oceans are very different than what Hokusai saw less than 200 years ago. The work beautifully depicts the ocean and the menace of plastics, how all of us are part of the problem, and how we are the only solution.
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Plastic-to-Fuel
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After seven years of encouraging Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and no sign of our plastic consumption reducing, we have identified a temporary solution until we can kick the plastic habit. PK Clean and POP, Inc. have partnered into a hybrid project engaging non-profit and industry together to solve one of biggest environmental issues of our day. Targeting islands and coastal communities as prime locations to address plastic marine debris, POP reached out to PK Clean to help take this technology to these regions, especially islands, in an effort to reduce discarded plastics and its potential to do harm. Lab scale tests of ocean samples provide promising results that plastics to oil serves as a means of reducing the risks of biota plastic ingestion and/or entanglement. Targeting islands for this technology will not only turn landfill-bound plastic waste into valuable oil, but it will also reduce the carbon footprint of having oil sent to these islands. Furthermore, because the plastics are low in sulfur, they represent reduced greenhouse emission compared to virgin crude.
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Ocean Friendly Establishments
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After continuously finding hundreds of plastic straws on Wrightsville Beach, the Plastic Ocean Project has teamed up with Surfrider Cape Fear Chapter, Wrightsville Beach Keep It Clean and Keep Brunswick County Beautiful in recognizing local restaurants as Ocean Friendly Establishments. In an effort to reduce plastic pollution, owners and managers of certified Ocean Friendly Establishments have agreed to only serve straws upon request. This is a self-regulated initiative, and restaurants are encouraged to ensure waitstaff are educated and adhering to the initiative. This initiative has spread to the Outer Banks and the Crystal Coast.
Currently, we are proud to announce over 130 OFEs! |
Hope Spot Hatteras
Dyan's Plastic bag project
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Hope Spots are areas of the ocean that are vital to marine life. The Sylvia Earle Alliance and Mission Blue have worked to create dozens of Hope Spots all over the ocean. Through intense advocacy and awareness efforts in these unique places, they fight to create formally protected marine protected areas. We hope by establishing a Hope Spot in Cape Hatteras we will increase awareness and advocacy for this unique and critical ocean area and be an influential step in gaining formal protection.
Learn more at www.hopespothatteras.org My name is Dylan Thiessen. I'm a senior at Hoggard High School in its IB program, and I've always cared about the environment. I was inspired to create the Plastic Bag Project when I learned for the first time that plastic bags were recyclable, but not with normal recycling, because it was completely new information to me. Knowing the pollution threat that plastic bags posed, I decided to help raise awareness that they could be recycled, and to make it easier for everyone to recycle their bags.
To donate, chick below: The mission of the Plastic Bag Project is to facilitate the recycling of plastic bags through increased awareness and recycling locations. Our website URL is https://pbprojectnc.wixsite.com/recycle |