Katmai Wrap-up

This summer, OPR concluded a two-year effort to remove marine debris from the coast of Katmai National Park, an effort funded by a grant from the NOAA Marine Debris Program. 

The 2022 expeditions occurred in July and August, and were primarily staffed by volunteers. These were carefully curated so that approximately half were influential in marine debris policy, plastics recycling, and research in their professional and academic lives, and the other half were high school or college students who could one day follow in their footsteps. This has OPR’s model for floating expeditions, and is our way of addressing the global plastics problem beyond the immediate environmental impact of our work.

L to R: Nina Butler (Stina Inc.), Erika Erikson (NREL), Peyton Thomas (UNC Wilmington), Carly Vester (Vester Media), Jay Windland (Jay Windland Productions), Brian Schmatz (Trinamix Inc.)

But the immediate impacts were noteworthy– 47,320 lbs of marine debris removed from a wild section of Alaska’s coast between between Hallo Bay and Amalik Bay. Over fifty people sailed on the Island C over the life of this project, living and sleeping the board, working long days ashore and contributing over 4000 hours of hard physical labor.