Together Ocean

1 Together Ocean FOR OUR. international coastal cleanup 2017 Report In partnership with volunteer organizations and individuals around the globe, Ocean Conservancy's international coastal cleanup engages people to remove trash from the world's beaches and waterways, identify the sources of debris and change the behaviors that cause marine debris in the first place. USA DOMINICAN REPUBLIC. BANGLADESH. 2 O C E A N C O N S E R VA N C Y. CONTENTS On behalf of all of us at Ocean Conservancy, I would like to thank the more than half a million 1 A Message from Ocean volunteers who made the 2016 international Conservancy's CEO coastal cleanup a success.

2 We simply couldn't PEOPLE: 504,583 do it without YOU. From 112 countries around 2 Perspectives from the Field the world, volunteers, site captains, state and county coordinators worked tirelessly 4 Volunteers Making a Splash to collect over 18 million pounds of trash. 6 Diving Deeper Thanks to you, we covered enough miles of coastline to walk around the moon twice. 8 Global Spotlight: We've collected enough balloons to lift a Stories from Africa POUNDS: 18,399,900 2,200 lb. walrus and enough fishing line to 10 Weird Finds Around the World KILOGRAMS: 8,346,055 reach the bottom of the Mariana Trench.

3 The Ocean 's deepest point nine times over. 12 Data Spotlight It is people like you that continue to inspire my optimism for the future of our Ocean . 14 2016 Ocean Trash Index For more than 30 years, volunteers across 20 Status Report: Science, Policy the world have come Together to become & Partners a global force for good. Together , we can MILES: 14,997 achieve a positive future for our Ocean . 22 2016 cleanup Coordinators KILOMETERS: 24,136. My sincerest thanks, 25 Acknowledgments Janis Jones Chief Executive Officer TOTAL ITEMS: 13,840,398 Ocean Conservancy I N T E R N A T I O N A L C O A S TA L C L E A N U P 1.

4 Perspectives from the Field VIRGIN ISLANDS. If A Goat Will Eat It into dumps. My own international coastal Two Seas, Many Hands Diana McCaulay, Jamaica cleanup experience began when I took a for a Clean Sweden houseguest to a beach I had loved as a child Anton Hedlund, Sweden When I was a child, my family had a rule and found it covered with garbage. It was a for littering: You can throw it on the ground life-changing moment which led to a career as We all love beaches, right? They have so or out of a car window if a goat can eat it. It an environmental activist, but there remains much to offer relaxing time with beautiful was a reasonable rule for that time.

5 Most of much work to be done in the Caribbean to keep views, sports, swimming and more. To not what we threw away during a road trip was garbage off beaches and out of the sea. have clean beaches, we believe, is a threat biodegradable banana peel, roast corn, to our freedom. Sweden is a small country in paper. But within a single generation JAMAICA terms of population, with approximately 10. mine the type of waste produced in Jamaica million inhabitants. However, by surface, it changed dramatically. Starting in the 1990s, is the fifth largest country in Europe and has single-use packaging exploded.

6 Soft drink 43,400 kilometers of coastline, along the Baltic containers, especially, made a transition from Sea and the North Sea. The Baltic Sea has glass to plastic. Foam plastic became much encountered problems in recent decades with more common. Shoppers used plastic bags. eutrophication, overfishing and environmental Lifestyles changed, too, as people started eating toxins. On the west coast of Sweden, the North more takeout food. Although the waste stream Sea is subject to intensive fishing. was completely different, people all over the These issues result in a lot of litter, such as Caribbean still behaved as though a goat could fish boxes, ropes and oil cans, floating onto the eat what they were throwing away.

7 And this shore. Combine that with the litter left by beach new waste made its way from open lots and visitors, and the Ocean trash conditions can roadsides to the Caribbean Sea. Within a very become quite overwhelming. In these situations short time, plastics could be seen on even the you can either look the other way or actually do remotest of beaches. something about it. We love our beaches in the Caribbean. We chose the latter. We go there to relax, have fun with friends, We may be a small country, but we can take a sea bath. Our tourism industry largely make a difference. We can be a role model.

8 Depends on attractive beaches, but our poor With help from the Swedish enterprise SWEDEN. practices inland are turning many beaches and municipalities, we have managed to 2 O C E A N C O N S E R VA N C Y. organize cleanups all over the country. One of the greatest parts of our project is having thousands of local youth from sport clubs who want to be involved and who will do anything to collect litter hike, wade through mud, climb and even repel from bridges. Youth participation is obviously great for the environment, but it also helps contribute to their own future by taking small visions and dreams and collectively making a better tomorrow.

9 Penguins and Plastics in Antarctica Anne Christianson, USA. Antarctica is the last great wilderness on Earth a place where humans have barely ANTARCTICA. gained a foothold, but where colonies of hundreds of thousands of penguins thrive, whales charge through swarms of krill and seals haul out on floating sheets of ice, Antarctic summer (Dec Feb), with little legal and plastic bottles completely unfazed by infrequent passing ships. oversight from the multi-lateral organizations and spotted chinstrap Through extraordinary adaptations, Antarctic that protect and manage it. The lifeblood of penguins playing with a wildlife has evolved to not only live but flourish Antarctica is the Ocean .

10 Each species in the piece of blue plastic in my limited time there. in the most extreme conditions on Earth. Southern Ocean evolved to survive in a unique Even in the most remote corners of the planet, Throughout most of the twentieth century, ecosystem niche, and if humans disrupt these our human presence is increasingly felt and the only people on Antarctica were researchers relationship balances, the entire system is in is altering this pristine landscape. Our work is and a handful of military personnel. Now, tens danger of collapse. critical to ensure that majestic and vulnerable of thousands of tourists from around the Although the Antarctic waters are still landscapes, like the Antarctic wilderness, are globe sail to the southern continent every relatively devoid of debris, I found fishing nets protected for generations to come.