Ocean Recovery Alliance (ORA) is a 501c3 registered non-profit organization in California, and registered charitable organization in Hong Kong, with the aim to use new technologies, innovations, creativity and collaborations to solve issues that face the health of the ocean today.
Foundation
Ocean Recovery Alliance was founded by Douglas Woodring and Ashley Day in 2010. Doug, currently Managing Director of Ocean Recovery Alliance, also co-founded
Project Kaisei
Project Kaisei (from 海星, ''kaisei'', "ocean planet" in Japanese) is a scientific and commercial mission to study and clean up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a large body of floating debris trapped in the Pacific Ocean by the currents of t ...
in 2009, which led a science expedition to the
North Pacific Gyre
The North Pacific Gyre (NPG) or North Pacific Subtropical Gyre (NPSG), located in the northern Pacific Ocean, is one of the five major oceanic gyres. This gyre covers most of the northern Pacific Ocean. It is the largest ecosystem on Earth, locate ...
with
Scripps Institution of Oceanography
The Scripps Institution of Oceanography (sometimes referred to as SIO, Scripps Oceanography, or Scripps) in San Diego, California, US founded in 1903, is one of the oldest and largest centers for oceanography, ocean and Earth science research ...
.
The
United Nations Environment Programme
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is responsible for coordinating responses to environmental issues within the United Nations system. It was established by Maurice Strong, its first director, after the United Nations Conference on th ...
(UNEP) listed
plastic pollution
Plastic pollution is the accumulation of plastic objects and particles (e.g. plastic bottles, bags and microbeads) in the Earth's environment that adversely affects humans, wildlife and their habitat. Plastics that act as pollutants are catego ...
in the ocean as the first of three main focal points in their 2011 UNEP Yearbook,
indicating the necessity of addressing how we use and dispose of plastics. One of the causes of plastic pollution is that so many of our disposable, single-use products, are made with a permanent material - plastic.
With the growth of our "disposable" lifestyles has come a growing burden on communities and governments whose waste management and recycling infrastructures have not been able to keep pace with our consumption patterns and waste generation.
Ocean Recovery Alliance is working on ways to combat this issue through the following projects:
Projects
The group is an umbrella organization which operates and organizes a variety of sub-projects related to the reduction of plastic pollution, ocean conservation, and general awareness about the value of our waters.
Two of the projects within the group were announced at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) in 2010, and are focused on innovative prevention programs for plastic waste reduction. This includes the
Plastic Disclosure Project,
and th
Global Alertplatform. Ocean Recovery Alliance is also a founding member of the
Ocean Conservancy
Ocean Conservancy (founded as The Delta Corporation) is a nonprofit environmental advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., United States. The organization formulates ocean policy at the federal and state government levels based on peer review ...
’s “Trash Free Seas Alliance” which was announced at th
Clinton Global Initiativein 2011.
On June 21, 2012, Ocean Recovery Alliance hosted a side event
Plasticity Forum
Ocean Recovery Alliance (ORA) is a 501c3 registered non-profit organization in California, and registered charitable organization in Hong Kong, with the aim to use new technologies, innovations, creativity and collaborations to solve issues that fa ...
br>
Rio at the RIO+20
Earth Summit.
Th
Tsunami Debris Tracking Projectwas the first project to place satellite tracking buoys to follow some of the debris flow in the south west part of the plume that was generated from the
2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami
Eleven or 11 may refer to:
*11 (number), the natural number following 10 and preceding 12
* one of the years 11 BC, AD 11, 1911, 2011, or any year ending in 11
Literature
* ''Eleven'' (novel), a 2006 novel by British author David Llewellyn
*''El ...
.
Together with Wallem Group and Anglo Eastern, Ocean Recovery Alliance installed acoustic equipment to bring awareness and enhanced science observations for the endangered
Chinese white dolphin
The Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin (''Sousa chinensis'') is a species of humpback dolphin inhabiting coastal waters of the eastern Indian and western Pacific Oceans. This species is often referred to as the Chinese white dolphin in mainland Chi ...
.
Ocean Recovery Alliance, in association wit
Flynn Consulting published a bilingual book titled Water Margin: Hong Kong's Link to the Sea. This book, which features images and stories from Hong Kong's unique aquatic environment, will be distributed free to over 700 local schools in Hong Kong.
In April 2012, Ocean Recovery Alliance organized Asia's first ocean film festival, in association with the San Francisco Ocean Film Festival
HK-SF Ocean Film Festival
HK-SF Ocean Film Festival is an annual film festival organised by the Ocean Recovery Alliance in collaboration with the San Francisco Ocean Film Festival. Featured films focus on a wide range of ocean-related topics from wildlife and conservatio ...
.
In September 2012, Ocean Recovery Alliance organized
Kids Ocean Day HK
Kids Ocean Day HK was organised by Ocean Recovery Alliance to celebrate Kids Ocean Day in Hong Kong.
Foundation
The Malibu Foundation, a California-based non-profit organisation, started Kids Ocean Day to connect children to the ocean and beac ...
.
To celebrate
World Oceans Day each June 8, Ocean Recovery Alliance encourages the Oceanic Big 5 to organize ocean cleanups to give back to the environment they rely on for recreation. The Oceanic Big 5 are the top sport users of our ocean; surfers, sailors, swimmers, divers and paddlers.
Ocean Recovery Alliance offers educational Junk Trips for companies or schools. Groups will have hands-on experience trawling for plastic debris on the west side of Hong Kong and learn about what plastic pollution means to Hong Kong and what we can do to make a difference.
In response to an unusual inundation of marine trash in 2016, ORA organized a human art piece and protest "Trashzilla" in November 2016.
Grate Art project: As part of an educational awareness campaign about the link between drains and the ocean, artistic ceramic tiles with environmental messages have been installed near sewage grates.
Publications
Flynn, Matthew and Ocean Recovery Alliance (2012) Water Margin: Hong Kong's Link to the Sea, Hong Kong SAR.
Related
Co-founder Ashley Day is currently CEO and founder o
Vor-Tek Recovery Solutions a company based in Southern California that is focused on new technology development and recovery methods for marine based applications suited for oil spill and marine plastics recovery. His oil spill recovery technology was selected as one of the top 10 finalists out of over 350 applicants in the
Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X CHALLENGE.
References
External links
Ocean Recovery AlliancePlastic Disclosure ProjectPlasticity ForumKids Ocean Day HK 2012 VideoProject Kaisei
{{Authority control
Ocean pollution
501(c)(3) organizations
Environmental organizations based in California