There are many fundraisers that occur throughout the year for the oceans and they are run by various organizations. Most of them have good intentions to help protect the Oceans. Some raise a lot of money and some not so much; however, the organizations to which you donate matter.

There is a large fundraiser that is going on right now to help raise $30 million dollars that promises to take out 30 million lbs of trash from the Ocean. Two organizations will split the money into two equal parts. One of those organizations is called the Ocean Conservancy and they have a great plastic pollution program; however, the other organization is the controversial Ocean Clean Up.

If you don't recall, the Ocean Clean Up is an organization that promised to clean up the Pacific Garbage Patch within 5 years of its operation. It not only failed, but it ignored many scientific criticisms and never made their environmental assessment public, but promised that everything was fine. None of their prototypes have worked even though millions of dollars were invested.

Now the Ocean Clean Up stands to gain a lot of money through a crowdsourcing campaign called Teamseas. The campaign is not talking about the controversy surrounding the Ocean Clean Up Project thereby legitimizing their work in the Ocean.

Dr. Virginia Schutte was asked to help raise funds for the campaign, but refused to participate due to the Ocean Clean Up being involved.

Virginia joins me on the show today to discuss why and what you could do to help protect the Ocean.

Make a donation to the Ocean Conservancy: https://donate.oceanconservancy.org/page/92465/donate/1

Connect with Dr. Virginia Schutte: website: https://www.virginiaschutte.com/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@vgwschutte? Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vgwschutte/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/VirginiaSchutte

Connect with Speak Up For Blue: Website: https://www.speakupforblue.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/speakupforblue/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/speakupforblue