#TeamSeas: A Viral Ocean Cleanup Campaign
By Ayla Kanber, Earth Forward Group
On October 29, 2021, a group of popular content creators launched the global #TeamSeas campaign to raise $30 million to remove 30 million pounds of plastic and trash from oceans, rivers, and beaches in 2 months. The same group recently completed a different fundraising campaign called #teamtrees, which reached its goal of raising $20 million to plant 20 million trees in 2 months.
The #TeamSeas campaign uses every dollar donated to remove one pound of trash from beaches, rivers, or the ocean. Specifically, the raised money is split evenly between two nonprofit organizations, the Ocean Conservancy and The Ocean Cleanup. The donated money is only released to the organizations after the trash is removed and verified.
Ocean Conservancy is #TeamSeas’ implementation partner for beaches and oceans. They support science-based solutions to tackle ocean conservation challenges. On the other hand, The Ocean Cleanup is #TeamSeas’ implementation partner for rivers. They develop and scale technologies to clean up what is already polluting our oceans, and to intercept plastic on its way to the ocean via rivers. The Ocean Cleanup’s mission is to achieve a 90% reduction of floating ocean plastic by 2040.
The #TeamSeas campaign was initiated because there is a huge negative impact on the Earth’s waters from nearly 200 million tons of plastic that are circulating in marine environments, with around 11 million tons entering the ocean every year. Our oceans provide countless benefits to people and animals, including:
- Oxygen production from phytoplankton: the ocean produces over half of the world’s oxygen and absorbs 50 times more carbon dioxide than the atmosphere.
- Climate regulation: the ocean transports heat from the equator to the poles, regulating climate and weather patterns.
- Transportation: 76% of all U.S. trade involves marine transportation.
- Home to marine life: the ocean provides humans with many activities like fishing, boating, kayaking, whale watching, and more.
- Economic benefits: the U.S. ocean economy alone produces $282 billion in goods and services, employing nearly 3 million Americans.
- Food source for humans: around 3 billion people in the world rely on seafood as a primary source of protein.
- Medicinal opportunities: many significant medicinal products have come from the ocean, including ingredients that help fight cancer, arthritis, Alzheimer’s disease, and heart disease.
If plastic pollution continues to worsen in the ocean without intervention, these benefits will dwindle and marine life will suffer the worst consequences. Plastic pollution in oceans causes the entanglement and death of nearly 100,000 animals annually, and micro-plastic consumption that leads to toxin build up that can later affect humans who consume that marine life.
As of February 2022, #TeamSeas has exceeded their goal of raising $30 million to remove 30 million pounds of trash, with over $31 million donated. It is expected that the donations will continue coming in, helping to clean up oceans one pound of plastic and trash at a time.
