OPR Announces Return to Kayak Island

In 2024 the Ocean Plastics Recovery Project established Kayak Island as a sentinel site to serve as an indicator of progress of global efforts to reduce marine debris pollution. Located near the Alaska coastal current, it is home to one of the largest accumulations of marine debris in the United States.

A series of cleanups at Kayak Island 2014-2016 removed an estimated 216,000 lbs of marine debris from a 12-mile stretch of this area. In those first years numerous items from these cleanups were traced back to the 2011 Tohoku tsunami, but an informal characterization of those first cleanups indicated the tsunami was only partly responsible for what had washed up on this remote Alaskan shore.

Eight years later, in 2024, OPR returned to Kayak Island and over the course of 33 days removed another 116,330 lbs of marine debris. According to OPR co-founder Andy Schroeder, who organized both cleanups, there was little if any evidence of his previous effort. In his words "It all came back."

Of course, it did not all come back. Instead, new plastics have continued to flow to Kayak Island from gyres and out of rivers and from coastlines around the Pacific, not triggered by a seismic event but by global production and consumption far outpacing capacity for collection and recycling. The pictures and video clips you see here are a symptom of an ocean in distress. At OPR we believe we must reverse the flow. We must remove plastics from the marine environment, undoing decades of harm, restoring critical habitat so that nature can thrive, and returning ocean plastics to the circular economy.

We have work to do.

With funding support from NOAA, OPR will return to Kayak Island in 2025. Our top priority is to clean up and collect monitoring data on 6.8 miles of coastline addressed in 2024, then continue cleanup efforts to cover as much additional coastline as possible during the 27-day project. We are currently fundraising to return again in 2026, with the goal of sustaining a seasonal monitoring effort indefinitely.

OPR is now hiring for this year's effort, spanning June 23 to July 19. Crews will serve two-week hitches and be based at a decommissioned lighthouse facility at Cape St. Elias, with one of Alaska's most stunning landscapes as a backdrop.

Successful applicants are limited to one (1) two-week hitch, but are welcome to apply to both. You can learn more about our mission and current projects on our website, or click below to read the job description and see how to apply.