To our amazing community,
COVID-19 has impacted us all in ways we could never have imagined. Sadly, it has made it unsafe to continue our Round the World mission in its original form. After exhausting every option with our trusted advisors, we’ve been forced to cancel the future at-sea voyage legs. Ultimately safety prevails and this unprecedented situation remains uncertain and out of our control.
We can’t quite believe it’s come to this after such an effort from so many people and organisations in our community to get this project off the ground. Before the pandemic hit we were nailing it! The impact we were able to make with 80 brilliant women from 28 nationalities over 10,000 nautical miles made waves in its contribution to solutions-based science, shifting perceptions on microplastics and building an inspired and inspiring community. Thank you to everyone involved for helping us bring this ambitious dream to life!
Check out our eXXpedition Round the World Impact Report for more.
But it doesn’t stop here. Our vision remains unchanged and creating change on land to tackle ocean plastic pollution is more important now than ever before. For now, our challenge is not how to navigate the remotest parts of our ocean to achieve it, but how we scale our impact by harnessing technology and all our incredible assets to push forward our urgent mission of researching the causes of and solutions to microplastic pollution in new ways.
We’re kickstarting that shift with …
Virtual Voyages: We are developing an exciting Virtual Voyage programme (starting January 2021) to complete a route around the world. Guest crew will have a chance to experience the best parts of our at-sea missions, gaining an in-depth understanding of the true impact of the plastics issue, forging and deepening relationships within our eXXpedition global community, developing solutions-based thinking and forming a plan for how they can apply their superpower to solve the problem.
SHiFT Platform of solutions: Over the coming months we will continue to develop SHiFT.how, our custom-built digital tool launched on World Ocean Day 2020, that’s been designed to help people and businesses find their role in solving ocean plastic pollution, from sea to source.
SHiFT Community hub: We have also created a virtual hub that we’ll invite eXXpedition Ambassadors to be part of. It’s a place to connect and collaborate, including weekly live sessions led by experts, exciting opportunities and resources, to really drive change back on land.
Scientific Programme: Since our pause in April, we’ve continued to analyse the 261 samples collected on board and presented preliminary findings at the MICRO2020 Conference. We are working closely with the University of Plymouth and University of Georgia to adapt our science programme.
And of course you’re wondering about S.V. TravelEdge! The boat remains in Tahiti where we were forced to halt in April 2020. In March 2021 she was listed for sale to help us recover some of the project set up costs after the at sea programme was cancelled.
We look forward to sharing updates and new initiatives with you, and working together to focus on what we can do to bring our community together to create large-scale change to protect our ocean.
Until then, very best wishes,
Emily Penn
Co-Founder, eXXpedition CIC
