Camden Yacht Club hosts free ocean cleanup talk on July 24

CAMDEN – Ashley Sullivan, executive director of the Rozalia Project, will speak about how her organization is cleaning the seas in the Gulf of Maine and beyond during a free sunset seminar on Wednesday, July 24, at 7 p.m. at the Camden Yacht Club.

“Trash, abandoned fishing gear and microplastics are ubiquitous in the marine environment, infiltrating the marine food web and ending up on our plates,” the Yacht Club said in a press release.

The Rozalia Project for a Clean Ocean, a nonprofit based in Vermont and Maine, uses microplastics research and data-driven cleanups to combat the scourge of marine debris. Sullivan and her team have worked from the Gulf of Maine to Miami and from the shores of Lake Champlain to the North Pole and Antarctica.

During this presentation, learn how the Rozalia Project developed the Cora Ball, a consumer solution to microfiber pollution, how it pioneered educational programs, and launched a global program to map and monitor microplastics through citizen science. Ashley will explain steps everyone can take to protect our one great ocean in Camden and beyond.

A lifelong seafarer and captain of a 60-ton USCG vessel, Sullivan grew up on an island in South Florida. She has designed, implemented, and managed environmental education programs and multi-stakeholder projects for 24 years. As one of the captains aboard the Rozalia Project’s oceanographic research sailing vessel, the American Promise, she travels the United States recovering marine debris, collecting data, and telling the Rozalia Project story.

The Yacht Club, located at 68 Bay View Street, hosts the nonprofit Camden Area Youth Seamanship Program (CAYSP), which is open to all young people in the community. Voluntary donations for CAYSP’s generous scholarships, which make sailing lessons affordable for all, will be accepted at the seminar. For detailed information on this year’s Sunset Seminars, visit https://camdenyachtclub.org/sunset-seminars.