Solving a problem starts with knowing that you have one. Project Kaisei vividly shows how discarded plastics are clogging the ocean, causing a major problem for the planet’s vital “blue heart”, entangling marinelife and insidiously killing as it accumulates in the food chain, from tiny plankton to great whales. Best of all, the mission highlights hope with ideas for positive action.
-Sylvia Earle, National Geographic
The Mission
Project Kaisei is a non-profit organization based in San Francisco and Hong Kong, established to increase the understanding and the scale of marine debris, its impact on our ocean environment, and how we can introduce solutions for both prevention and clean-up.
Project Kaisei understands the vital connection between the health of the oceans and the health of our planet–between the health of the oceans and our own health. It is one of the goals of Project Kaisei to make the ocean debris problem an issue that people understand and care about. Everyone can be part of the solution. It is imperative to stop the flow of marine litter and toxins into our oceans. It is equally necessary to begin significant cleanup efforts, both coastally and in the Gyres in order to help to restore the ocean’s ecosystems and preserve our global ocean for future generations.
Project Kaisei has a three-fold strategy:
1. Conduct research expeditions to assess the problem from a scientific, quantitative, and practical perspective.
2. Use these expeditions as a way to publicize the growing problem to youth, the general public, corporations, NGOs, and governments. Through these communications, we hope to dramatically contribute to stopping the flow of debris into our global ocean.
3. Develop a multidisciplinary team to design and create marine debris collection equipment and to test this equipment by doing remediation expeditions.
Why the North Pacific Gyre?
The North Pacific Gyre, located between Asia and the US, is formed by four major ocean currents that create a vortex of scattered fields and rivers of trash. This area of water along with the garbage that it accumulates, swirls slowly round and around in the general area between 500 miles off the west coast of the U.S. and 500 miles off of Asia creating a hazard for mariners, sea life, and all life on the planet. The disbursement of plastic trash is spread out over thousands of square miles of ocean.
Of the 11 major gyres in the world, the North Pacific Gyre is the most polluted. Large accumulations of free-floating garbage converge in certain current conditions while other areas of the Gyre resemble fields of garbage. This vast expanse of debris is, in effect, the world’s largest rubbish dump. The Atlantic and Indian oceans are not far behind.
Our Scientific Expeditions
In 2009 and 2010, Project Kaisei launched two scientific expeditions to the North Pacific Gyre located between Asia and the United States. These expeditions have given us vital scientific research from analysis of debris samples and distribution logs, ground-proofing of ocean current models and development and testing of collection equipment prototypes that will help define and ultimately address the problem of plastic waste in our global ocean. These expeditions galvanized tremendous international recognition of this global issue for our project and our partners.
We are now seeking sponsors for our 2011 expedition who would like to join a growing number of companies and organizations helping to find solutions to the marine debris issue by supporting the work of Project Kaisei. This expedition will focus on clean-up operations as well as testing new ways to retrieve marine debris. This year’s expedition will also allow Project Kaisei to do further ground proofing of current models and to assist in finding the areas of greatest plastic proliferation to allow for the most effective clean up.
Project Kaisei has an excellent team of naval architects and marine scientists who have set up a think tank to help with the design of marine debris collection devices and systems. We are also working at adapting traditional fishing methods, such as purse seining and trawling, as well as oil spill clean-up technology (skimmers) for collecting plastic at surface level. Project Kaisei’s main focus for 2011 and beyond is to work on solutions, clean up, education, and prevention.