The Volvo Ocean Race is mounting a global campaign to help raise awareness of the increasing volume of pollution that is swirling in our oceans and threatening sea-life across the globe.
Scientists estimate in excess of 100 million tonnes of plastic is forming at least five vast floating rubbish dumps across the world’s oceans, including one in the northern Pacific believed to be larger than the state of Texas.
This pollution is threatening the continued health and diversity of our oceans that are vital for so many reasons; they drive our climate, provide more than half of our oxygen supply, are an abundant source of food and offer boundless recreational opportunities – not least for the Volvo Ocean Race.
Together with artist collective Skeleton Sea, the Volvo Ocean Race is voicing a call to arms for everyone to help reduce pollution and share in a simple message through the Keep the Oceans Clean! initiative.
The campaign will include curious and quirky sculptures created from flotsam and jetsam, beach rubbish and weathered and dead materials that have been made by Skeleton Sea founders João Parrinha of Portugal, Spain’s Luis de Dios and Xandi Kreuzeder of Germany.
Central to the Keep the Oceans Clean! campaign is Skeleton Sea’s latest creation “Albatross Exhibitionist” – a sculpture and short-film installation that tell the compelling story of the thousands of albatross that are killed each year because they fatally mistake floating rubbish for food.
The human-sized sculpture and six-minute film will be on show at the equally intriguing and inviting Keep the Oceans Clean! Dome, which will follow the path of the 39,000 nautical mile race, offering the experience to the millions of visitors expected at the Host Ports during the Volvo Ocean Race 2011-12.
Visitors will also be given the opportunity to be a part of the solution by taking part in beach clean-ups at each host port. The rubbish collected will be used in interactive workshops with the Skeleton Sea artists, school children and the general public to help create more fascinating sculptures.
