Protecting the ocean by fighting plastic pollution

Wings of the Ocean

Action zones

France

The project

DecontaminationSensibilization

Limit the arrival of waste, particularly plastic, in the ocean by protecting and cleaning up French coastlines and rivers, and by acting at source to change behavior and local prevention plans.

145

metric tons

of waste already collected in 1,300 collections

+40 000

people sensitized

+1000

volunteers involved in our missions

Solution

Wings of the Ocean installs seven 2-6 month missions each year on French coastlines and rivers, to preserve areas directly impacted by plastic pollution and waste.

To achieve this, the association makes the following commitments:

organize several waste collections each week;
raise awareness of ocean protection for the general public by running workshops on waste, the ocean and the impact of plastic, and by taking part in local & national ;
develop a sorting center locally to characterize and revalue (when possible!) the waste recovered;
recruit a network of volunteers fed, housed and trained by the association each year on their local and itinerant missions (boats).

News

See all

11/8/2024

Focus on the Wings of the Ocean river mission on the Rhône Delta 2024!

Dear difteurs,

Thanks to your difts, Wings of the Ocean operates every day on French coastlines and rivers to preserve them from the litter that floods them!

As the year draws to a close, two of our seven missions remain active in the field, with the other five now closed!"

These are the Mediterranean missions on the Rhone Delta and the Etang de Berre, which are still in full swing this November.

Small focus then on our new River mission on the banks of the Rhône launched this year with :

- already 460 hours of collection accumulated since the mission began this summer

- unfortunately 1950 kgs of waste collected in just 22 actions

- waste collections by kayak at the mouth of the Rhône and in the Parc Naturel de Camargue

The big winner again and again being plastic, which accounted for 1460kg, representing 75% of the total weight of waste collected.

The installation of missions on river estuaries is proving to be a priority given the role these transfer routes play in transporting waste from land to sea.

Let's not forget that 80% of waste at sea comes from inland, 10% from coastal activities and 10% from activities at sea.

Thank you for your support, which enables our teams of motivated volunteers to take action on the ground to preserve our Ocean.

See you soon!

7/11/2024

The first figures for the 2024 missions!

Dear Captains,
With the start of the vacations, it's high time to share the first news of our active missions on coasts and rivers in 2024!
Wings of the Ocean has launched its 7 missions since April
Thanks to your support and that of our other patrons and partners, we have already been able to:

collect more than 3 tons of waste all missions combined during 103 collections (more than half of which is plastic waste...)
Collecting over a million cigarette butts in just a few hours during the Mégothon 2024 co-organized by Wings of the Ocean and other local associations.
recruit, train and house 112 volunteers who take action in the field every day
raise awareness among 5910 people during 147 awarenessraising actions
launch a large-scale scientific study on our three fixed missions (Etang de Berre, Etang de Thau, Bassin d'Arcachon) in order to take nearly 120 soil samples to assess the quantity of micro and nano plastics present in the areas where we operate every year! This scientific project includes several CRNS laboratories.

(Data compiled up to June 30, 2024)

Forthcoming:

Launch of the Etang de Berre mission
Launch of the Rhône Delta mission in partnership with the Parc Naturel de Camargue

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for the support you give every day to our missions to protect the Ocean <3

The money will be used for

Your support will contribute directly to mission expenses each year, namely:

accommodation, food and transportation for more than 200 volunteers;
the operational costs of their waste collection and awareness-raising activities;
the costs inherent in maintaining their fleet of boats.

Wings of the Ocean

m² of coastline cleaned up

already funded

1428 difts