Courtesy of WOWSA, Huntington Beach, California.

One of the sponsors of the Simon Holliday‘s 35 km Clean Cross Swim from Hong Kong to Macau was Ocean Recovery Alliance.

During the swim across the Pearl River Delta, Doug Woodring collected a variety of debris for later analysis.

Simple collection of garbage and junk in the sea may seem innocuous and hopeless, but Ocean Recovery Alliance has its purpose.

Woodring and his volunteers have been developing new ways of thinking, technologies, creativity and collaborations in order to introduce innovative projects and initiatives that help to improve the ocean environment. Accurate information and concrete data are critical to its work.

Ocean Recovery Alliance currently has two projects with the Clinton Global Initiative focused on the reduction of plastic pollution, and is one of the few NGOs in the world to be working with both the United Nations Environment Programme and the World Bank’s Global Partnership for Oceans. It also organises Kids Ocean Day in Hong Kong, 2014 Hong Kong-San Francisco International Ocean Film Festival, and the international business forum, Plasticity, on the future of plastic, where it can be used, without the footprint.

“We were even scoping the debris in a squall,” recalls Woodring.

A Hong Kong television report is here.

Photos courtesy of Michael Becker.

Copyright © 2014 by World Open Water Swimming Association