Courtesy of WOWSA, Huntington Beach, California.

The momentum and global reach of Ocean Recovery Alliance programs is growing.

Among its many projects, supplemented by a variety of ocean swims of various lengths, its Global Alert mobile app is being increasingly used from Asia to the Americas.

“The Global Alert Platform allows people anywhere in the world to report and geotag trash hotspots in waterways and coastlines.

This helps stakeholders to manage and reduce plastic waste that reaches our ocean waters,” explains creator Doug Woodring. “The Global Alert app/platform is a tool for all communities to use to help slow the flow of trash in their waters, helping fresh water systems along the way, while benefiting the ocean at the end of the outflow. Global participation and data can make a big difference to stakeholders who are trying to manage and prevent plastic from impacting our waters.”

It is among the nominees for the 2016 World Open Water Swimming Offering of the Year – various products and services that, among other benefits, are innovative, unique and beneficial to open water swimmers, race directors, coaches and administrators, and have made the most positive impact on the world of open water swimming during the calendar year.

1. Prison Island Swims (International)
2. KIM SWIMS (USA)
3. Samsung Bosphorus Cross-Continental Swim (Turkey)
4. Ocean City Swim Club Unified Team / Legion of Ocean Heroes Surf Lifesaving Festival (USA)
5. KAATSU Aqua (Japan)
6. Hawaiʻi Tiger Shark Tracking (USA)
7. OceanFit (Australia)
8. The Power of Swimming or Simma med Stjärnorna (Sweden)
9. Wildswim.com (United Kingdom)
10. Instabeat (International)
11. Terroir Project Collection (Denmark)
12. Agar Plasticity (Japan)
13. Swimming in the Sink: An Episode of the Heart by Lynne Cox (USA)
14. Global Alert Platform by the Ocean Recovery Alliance (Hong Kong)
15. Blue Mind Summits by Dr. Wallace J. Nichols (International)

To vote for the WOWSA Awards, visit here. Online voting continues until December 31st 2016 midnight.

Photo above shows Trashzilla during the 4th Kids Ocean Day Hong Kong event, another Ocean Recovery Alliance program. Over 800 students created a giant trash monster named Trashzilla, which feeds off of plastic waste. Lap Sap Chung, as he is known in Chinese, was seen in Repulse Bay, having grown with the increase in global plastic pollution. The message from the these youth of Hong Kong was to help protect the ocean from trash and pollution, keeping Trashzilla at bay in the years to come.



Copyright © 2016 by World Open Water Swimming Association