Blue Friday is an initiative pioneered by a group of businesses as an alternative to Black Friday. All participating businesses pledge to donate a portion of sales from November 25th, 2022 to directly support Blue Friday's ocean conservation initiatives.
Our goal for 2022 is to raise a collective total of $100,000 to be divided between the following projects:PROJECTS BEING FUNDED BY 2022 DONATIONS:
1. Styrofoam Processing Facility - Surfrider Pacific Rim *primary project
Styrofoam pollution is one of the most noxious and omnipresent threats to our ocean. In 2021 we worked together to remove a major contributor to this pollution: unencapsulated foam docks. This year, we will be working towards closing the loop by building a localized circular economy for styrofoam processing facility.
This will include building capacity to clean, grind, and process marine plastics into usable products. Offcuts and material that is too contaminated to be upcycled will be ground down and compressed, making it far more cost-effective to ship to the chemical recycler.
2. Scott Islands Marine Debris Removal - Living Oceans *secondary project
An expedition to the Scott Islands to remove marine debris that is impacting foreshore and intertidal areas of this important refuge for seabirds and marine mammals. The recent spill of cargo from the container ship Zim Kingston has left the remote area on the northwest coast of Vancouver Island littered with plastic, metal and other consumer items.
This chain of islands off Cape Scott is part of a new Marine National Wildlife Area. Designed primarily to protect nesting seabirds, the mNWA is also a refuge for whales, sea lions, seals, sea otters, dolphins, porpoise and a host of fish and shellfish. For over a decade, Living Oceans has been doing foreshore remediation work, removing harmful plastics before they can break up into microplastics that can enter the food chain.
