The Oceans and Rivers Need Our Love!

We love the oceans and rivers, we know you do too! We have seen multiple efforts over the past several years that have promised big results. Yet years later, we haven't seen any results, only more promises. So, we got to work, designed a system that is resilient, able to operate in challenging seas, and recovers both micro and macro plastics. Our mission is the world and we cannot do this alone. Your support will not only help clean the ocean, but also save the many sea creatures that call the ocean it's home.

Oceanamatica is a comprehensive program to recover ocean and river plastics, process, and put back into the supply chain. With open arms we also want to build a community of like-minded people. We cannot do this by ourselves, please join us!

Questions and Answers

Q: How would you summarize Oceanamatica?

A: Oceanamatica is a international organization focused on removing plastics and other wastes from the open ocean, rivers and seafloor, then returning those plastics to industries who can use them in a good way. This is called closed loop recycling.

Q: You are one of two companies in the world working in this issue, the other is the OceanCleanup. Why do we need another company?

A: While we wish them the best of success, we had stated early on our concern that the designs wouldn't work, and they are having those exact issues. Unfortunately, they market promises of cleanup within just a few years. Again, this is unrealistic and reveals the lack of grasp of the situation. Even now, they have decided to follow our lead in focusing on oceans and rivers. It really illustrates the need for more than one or two companies to be working on this enormous issue. We have a different approach to the same goal. Our design is a targeted, efficient approach to work in any ocean, sea, bay, gulf, river, etc. We know our design works because it is in use on a smaller scale on inland waterways. Additionally, we have a closed loop system, from plastics removal, processing, and return to industry, we have this all planned out. OceanClanup does not have a plan to process onboard, nor a plan to return the plastics to industries that will not cause further harm.

Q: Please explain 'closed loop,' what is a closed loop design?

A: Closed loop means we are recovering the plastics and returning them as a product to an industry partner that creates an aggregate sand. A lot of the plastic recovered is a very low quality, and its only use is really in roadbeds and construction. So, we chip it up on board to reduce it down to a small footprint, and bag it for further processing on land. This creates efficiences that no one else can achieve.

Q: Why not use the plastic for fuel?

A: There are a couple of issues. You have to look at plastic as a stored liquid carbon product. First, it took energy to produce the plastic from a petroleum. It is a waste of energy to burn that as fuel. You really do not recover that much energy from the stored liquid carbons. Secondly, most of the fuel options have a toxic chemical profile byproduct released. Some inventors have stated they can get a clean burn from plastic. However, the reality is, in use with various qualities of plastic, using them as fuel really should be the last option, in our opinion.

Q: Why not just leave the plastics to break up and sink? Isnt that what they eventually do?

A: In general, yes. They start to break down, crack up, some remain floating for years, and eventually start sinking. The problem is, in that process, animals eat the smaller particles, chemicals are leeched out and others are attracted to the particles, and the overall impact kills millions of animals every year. It is a complicated range of factors that add up to a very sombering future for the oceans, it's inhabitants, and for humans.

Q: How does your system deal with by-catch of animals?

A: In a few ways. First, the remote operator of the recovery vessel is watching for larger life, for example a turtle, in case they are caught in debris, namely ghostnets. Secondly, the small barges that are used in our ocean plastic recovery design have apertures in the bottom to allow sealife to escape out of the bottom when the barge is hauled out into the base ship for processing. And again, when sealife is removed from the plastics, they are returned to the sea.

Q: How big is the area where these ocean plastics are at?

A: They are basically in 7 primary gyres, circular currents, like stirring a liquid in a bowl. Except these bowls are rather large. In total, they make up an area larger than the size of the US mainland. Its huge.

Q: How will you tackle such a large area?

A: One of the advantages of our design is to be able to move the operational unit of the base ship and the remote operated vessels to the concentrations of the plastic. Flotsam lines form in the open ocean, and we know where to find them by satellite and drone surveys. The images are scanned by computer, to discover where the flotsam concentrations can be found. In other operational theatres, such as Ha Long Bay in Vietnam, or the areas in the Carribean, we can move one operational unit there and process that geographical area. This targeted approach conserves resources, energy, and increases our efficiency and success.

Q: Where is this plastic being generated from? Who do we blame?

A: The injection points are localized around very populous countries. However, most worrisome are the ghostnets, thousands of metric tons of plastic out there. They wear very quickly, and are discarded by inconsiderate fisherman. They are lethal to sea life and break down into nano size plastics that kills on a much broader scale. Add to this; debris due to storms, such as the tsunamis and typhoons that hit the western Pacific Rim area and the western Atlantic. These weather related events pick up loose plastics and float them out to sea. So, the issue is mostly due to human negligence in not recycling plastic products, no matter what form they take.

Q: This seems like it is an expensive endeavour, any idea how much it will take?

A: Conservatively, billions of dollars. However, the cost of doing nothing means the loss of tens of millions of lives. We depend on the oceans for half of our oxygen, food, and to balance the macro-ecology of the planet itself. The oceans are under tremendous pressure and are in states of collapse. This issue will force the collapse of entire fisheries, stocks of animals, and affect humans on a large scale. When we cant breathe due to lack of oxygen, billions will be a small price to pay.

Q: How long will the cleanup take?

A: As we have seen recently, people are starting to make changes. And that is what really needs to happen. People must change their consuming habits and how we view plastics in general. Plastics are a resource, not the enemy. We must learn to manage that resource, and be responsible with plastics. This will be a decades long effort, and the sooner we get started, the better off we will be!

Q: You mentioned an education and research component, how are you implementing these into your program?

A: As always, education and research must be a part of any program or endeavour. Oceanamatica-LoveBlue is no exception. We cannot accept that our design is the best- we must always do our best to improve, everyday. There are other ideas that may work better, once we discover them. Onboard each base ship are labs and areas for this type of research and study for interns and paid scientists to work on these issues. We also have the outreach Ocean Heros program, highlighting Oceana the Mermaid and Jett the Merman as the main characters to appeal to youth. Our young ones have a very important role to play here, they have a powerful voice and influence in the household and daily life.

Q: So, what do you need for funding? Where are you at in the stream of progress?

A: We need funds to build and deploy- to get to work. We so desperately want to get to work recovering plastics. Each hour sees 1.4 million pounds added to the problem.

Q: Any further comments to share with the readers?

A: Just to please remember to recycle. Use = responsiblity to recycle that plastic. Preventing ocean plastics by participating and promoting recycling program is the cheapest and surest way to help us. Also, please give monetarily. We need your help to develop, build, and deploy these systems.