WE ARE ON A BLUE MISSION

Set Sails, For Sustainability

Report 2022-2023 is ready!

You can read the report here.

Historical Reports

About Us

When Ocean is Your Life

We are a small team of enthusiastic people with different ideas and professional backgrounds coming together to make a difference, helping our marine environment by conducting an exciting long term conservation project.

What are we doing?

The Icelandic Clean up-project
Our Chances Are Right Here, Right Now!

It is time to show that we all care about this planet and the future! It is time to stand up for healthy oceans and clean shores in Iceland! You and I, we are the action! You and I , we are the change! This year, we call for all hands on decks!

Previous Expeditions

Standing For The Voices Of The Seas At The Edge Of The Arctic

Twice a year, Ocean Missions sets sail from Ópal and Tilvera for week-long voyages with a crew of Ocean Ambassadors, during which we learn more about the wonders of our seas and look for innovative and realistic ways to care for them and carry their voice as loud and far as possible.

Belén García Ovide
Marine Biologist & Wildlife Guide Founder of Ocean Missions. Ocean passionate and energetic since she can remember.
Heimir Harðarson
Captain of Schooner Opal Co- founder of Ocean Missions. An explorer by heart and sailor by soul.
Doctor Charla Jean Basran
Whale Researcher Charla is a marine biologist and a whale researcher, with a master’s in marine and coastal management who recently completed her phD
Testimonials

Experts Said About Us

The Arctic regions are particularly vulnerable, and much of the marine life that forms here is the basic prey for marine life across the globe. This is why I’m very excited to join the expedition with Ocean Missions in Iceland.

I joined the Ocean Missions expedition knowing it was a great opportunity to spend a week sailing with people with different backgrounds and skills, but one common goal: making a difference for the oceans and spreading the world.

I join this your to work with other people who are passionate about the Ocean and to get inspired. Bringing people together working for a project like this have a  great potential and I want to support it. It is important to raise awareness and built bridges between science and public engagement. Sailing Opal has been amazing. I am very happy to be an Ocean Missions ambassador.

This experience, the sailing, the science, the landscape, the people… was absolutely beautiful. This project is as critical as inspiring and it needs to get off the ground. I wont soon forget my days under an on deck pulling ropes and analyzing micro plastics from the shimmering blue Icelandic waters. It’s a dream to watch the icy white caps clapping up into frozen, snowcapped mountains.

If we are willing to live with other beings, then we need to also listen to our fellow humans and make cross-overs between different fields of expertise. This is was I was eager to come. I believe that Ocean Missions is beautiful initiative with a perfect platform for developing  projects and relationships (human to human and human to non human…). I am forever grateful to be part of Opal crew and the ongoing conversation with the Ocean.

Vision

After years of experience in science and tourism business we learnt that inspiration, team building and to bring people to discover the wonders of the sea while understanding the problems is a powerful approach for working together for healthy oceans.

Actions

With our seasonal expeditions in Arctic and Subarctic regions we monitor plastic pollution, whale and sea bird ecology and use the data for scientific and educational purposes.

Solutions

Everyone can be part of the solution. We believe on a bottom-up strategy, developing solutions from the individual level up to the collective. Connecting and engaging people, we work closely with decision makers, schools, the public and the scientific community to protect and respect the oceans.

OCEANS ARE HOME TO 80% OF ALL LIFE ON EARTH AND IT'S IN BIG TROUBLE

8 million metric tons
of the plastic is dumped into our oceans every year — which is equivalent to a full garbage truck of plastic being dumped into the oceans every minute
5.25 trillion piece
plastics that occupy every ocean on the planet Nearly 93% of them are smaller than a grain of rice
640.000 tons
of fishing gear enters our oceans every year harming endangered marine life and fragile ecosystems (FAO)
60.000
cargo vessels are on the seas at any given time. Shipping noise is the largest source of anthropogenic noise which interfere with marine life communication

The power of the nature

Ocean Missions is a project sponsored by North Sailing

Do you want to join us in our next expedition?

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