We dream big and think big. But to truly make our movement matter, we need to act big. We sparked the first research questions in the field, and from the beginning we’ve grown our mission on the foundation of our successes.
1994
Algalita is founded by Long Beach local, Captain Charles Moore. Our original mission was to study and restore kelp forests off the coast of Southern California. This was the first iteration of our logo and name!
1995
Capt. Charlie acquires 50-ft research vessel, the ORV Alguita, and focuses on kelp restoration efforts along the coasts of Mexico and Southern California.
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1997
ORV Alguita gets a new rig and Charles enters the Trans-Pac Yacht Race from LA to Honolulu to test it out. This is where the Algalita plastic pollution story begins. Returning home from HI, Charles motors through an area called the North Pacific Gyre. Charles realized he was constantly surrounded by plastic debris – in a sea of plastic soup.
1999
Algalita returns to the North Pacific Gyre with a research plan and sampling protocol. The team collects water samples that reveals plastic outweighing zooplankton by a factor of six to one. This expedition was followed by the 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007, 2008 and 2009 voyages.
2001-2002
Algalita publishes results from 1999 research expedition in a scientific journal. U.S. News publishes 3-page spread about Algalita’s efforts. As more and more news outlets and magazines share Algalita’s story, the movement to end plastic pollution begins to take shape.
2005
Algalita hosts first-ever conference, Plastic Debris: Rivers to Sea, bringing together plastic companies, brands, scientists, government officials, and environmental activists. Our efforts lead to state policies to reduce plastic pollution in California, including pre-production plastic pellets lost by the plastics industry.
2011
Algalita’s education programs begin to take shape after hosting the world’s first International Youth Summit on Plastic Pollution. The annual event has supported hundreds of youth projects in over 25+ countries across the globe.
2011
Plastic Ocean, written by Capt. Charles Moore and Cassandra Phillips, was published.
“A hero…Moore is the first person to have pursued serious scientific research by sampling the garbage patch.” —The New York Times
2012
Partnering with 5 Gyres Institute, Algalita traveled across the North Pacific in search of debris from the 2011 Japanese tsunami. The team found a tremendous amount of ropes, buoys, mooring lines and anchors out to sea from aquaculture farms that were harvesting mussels and oysters.
2012
Algalita designs the world’s first classroom teaching kit containing real samples from the North Pacific Gyre. Algalita continues to offer toolkits to educators across the United States, including an evolved version of our original Debris Science Investigation Kit.
2014
The last of a four-part series of expeditions focused on collecting comparative data sets on plastic pollution in North Pacific Gyre is complete. This expedition also highlighted the harms of fishing industry debris and and derelict gear.
2016-2017
Our team conducts a seven-month expedition and education tour throughout the South Pacific. Algalita collected plastic pollution samples across the Equatorial Currents, the South Pacific Subtropical Gyre and at various stations along the Chilean coast in order to strengthen the existing data set.
2018
Bring Your Own Long Beach opens first location at Algalita headquarters. We became the first-ever refill store in Long Beach and have become an integral part of the community. Today, there is a second location downtown Long Beach.
2019
Algalita partners with Korean Broadcasting System to produce a documentary of our research in the East Pacific Gyre reaching millions of households across South Korea. The goals of the voyage were to sample the center of debris accumulation based on the Hafner & Maximenko model and to repeat sampling of the 11 original stations.
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2020
Algalita launches new sister organization, Moore Institute for Plastic Pollution Research, dedicated to investigating plastic pollution in tap water, air, products, etc. Moore Institute is the first accredited non-profit lab to test for microplastics in drinking water!
2020
Our efforts are featured in the Emmy winning documentary, The Story of Plastic. The film presents a cohesive timeline of how we got to our current global plastic pollution crisis, while also highlighting the advocates around the globe mobilizing to address this issue.
2020
Algalita worked with California Congressman, Alan Lowenthal, and other members of the Break Free From Plastic Coalition, to develop and introduce The Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act of 2020 – the most comprehensive legislation addressing plastic production and pollution in the United States.
2023
Algalita launches Wayfinder Society for Environmental Education, a program that empowers educators with the tools to teach quality environmental education in the classroom including standards-aligned lesson plans, toolkits, mini-grants, and more.
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