FleetBroadband helps Plastiki broadcast plight of oceans to world’s media
21 July 2010 – Tens of millions of people are now aware of the staggering 15 billion pounds (6.8 billion kg) of rubbish dumped in the world’s oceans each year thanks to a pioneering environmental mission, the Plastiki Expedition. Led by adventurer and environmentalist David de Rothschild, the ocean-crossing expedition relied solely on the clarity, quality and reliability of Inmarsat’s FleetBroadband service to spread its important message to a global audience.
Plastiki, a 20-metre catamaran that uses 12,500 reclaimed plastic bottles in its hull, is on course to arrive in Sydney this weekend. Using Inmarsat’s FleetBroadband, de Rothschild and his crew have been able to keep the expedition firmly in the public eye and raise a debate on finding ways to beat waste, in particular the colossal amounts of plastic in our oceans.
Since its departure from San Francisco on March 20, 2010, over 50 media interviews have been conducted, resulting in more than 300 print articles, 200 radio and TV broadcasts and 1,000 mentions on websites. There are over 800,000 search terms relating to Plastiki and 52,200 related images on Google.
Celebrating the eco boat’s arrival, the New South Wales State Government has declared a state event. When the boat reaches its final destination it will have sailed over 7,500 nautical miles, or about 13,000 kilometres over more than 120 days.
De Rothschild said the journey had succeeded in attracting a worldwide audience. Over a million people have followed the vessel’s progress via www.theplastiki.com, and over 7,000 people are following on Facebook.
Said de Rothschild: “Every day we have thousands of people simultaneously responding online, it’s amazing to see this growing community.”
A lasting legacy of the Plastiki will be its capacity to shift public thinking and perception from plastic as the enemy to plastic becoming part of the solution. To solve the plastic pollution and waste issues at large will require a re-think of how we currently use, reuse and ultimately dispose of plastics and waste products.
According to Andrew Sukawaty, Chairman and CEO of Inmarsat, the FleetBroadband services helped Plastiki capture the imagination of the general public.
Said Sukawaty: “Plastiki has created an increasingly large and loyal following around the globe. We’re delighted that our flagship service, FleetBroadband, can help effect change. As David so rightly says, the impact of our plastic waste is undeniable.”
Commenting on the global reach of this vital environmental message, de Rothschild said: "One of the founding principles of the Plastiki Expedition was to create a global conversation around the issues and the solutions needed in order to beat waste, especially the plastic pollution that plagues our oceans. Without Inmarsat’s FleetBroadband service, unwavering commitment and vision to support our call to action, the Plastiki wouldn’t have been able to reach the global audience it has, and in turn create such an immense global voice of change."
As well as reaching over six million viewers through a single interview on the Oprah Winfrey Show, regular video reports were transmitted from the boat for weekly TV and web reports on CNN International. De Rothschild conducted many phone interviews over FleetBroadband, including one with the website Smartplanet in which he said: "Because we have all this connectivity, it allows us to be ambitious with the messages we send and the kind of content we are posting."
The high-quality voice and broadband data connectivity of Inmarsat’s maritime service, FleetBroadband, has guaranteed that Plastiki has been the most connected environmental messenger on today’s oceans. During the 120 day plus voyage FleetBroadband has provided essential 24/7 connectivity and sent high-definition television (HDTV) and rich multimedia content from Plastiki to the world’s media in a bid to reach the largest global audience with this environmental message.
The boat is completely self-contained in terms of its energy generation. A SAILOR FleetBroadband 500 (FB500) was supplied by solutions provider Satcom to send store-and-forward video from the boat back to the project website and to media. The video production equipment was supplied by Livewire Digital, airtime by Stratos Global and the Inmarsat C safety service by Thrane & Thrane.
The Plastiki Expedition has benefited from the 432kbps of standard IP connectivity, and up to 256kbps of guaranteed or ‘streaming’ IP data.
In addition to creating a media event, it was, according to Plastiki skipper Jo Royle, hugely reassuring for the crew to know that with FleetBroadband they were never alone, and that their progress and news was reaching not only the media, sponsors and a global audience but also their own friends and families.
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Notes to Editors
Additional quotes
Skipper Jo Royle: “The expedition would have had a totally different meaning without the support of Inmarsat. Without it, there is no way we would have had so many hits to our website and built such an incredible community of people following us and engaging in live discussions about the health of our oceans and how we see a smarter future.”
Skipper Jo Royle: “The Sailor FB500 and Stratos as the air time service provider for the Plastiki expedition have been 100 per cent reliable. I have never experienced such clarity in ship-to-shore communications. Inmarsat technology has totally revolutionised my job as an ocean sailor skipper. We can now enjoy life at sea and remain connected with developments on shore. As technology across all aspects of professional life at sea continues to push boundaries, connectivity between ship and shore side teams is increasingly important.”
Inmarsat plc (LSE: ISAT) is the leading provider of global mobile satellite communications services. Since 1979, Inmarsat has been providing reliable voice and high-speed data communications to governments, enterprises and other organizations, with a range of services that can be used on land, at sea or in the air. The company's services are delivered through a global network of more than 400 distribution partners and service providers operating in 100 countries. For the year ended 31 December 2009, Inmarsat plc had total revenue of US$1,038.1 million (2008: US$996.7 million) with an EBITDA of US$594.2 million (2008: US$531.2 million). For more information, please visit www.inmarsat.com.
About Adventure Ecology / The Plastiki Expedition
Founded in 2005 by David de Rothschild, Adventure Ecology uses the magic and excitement of unique field missions to educate, entertain and raise awareness of environmental and social issues while driving innovative real world solutions. Adventure Ecology’s latest undertaking is The Plastiki Expedition: an approximately 11,000 nautical mile voyage from the United States to Australia which aims to showcase smart thinking by using waste as a valuable resource. David de Rothschild along with his crew including skipper, Jo Royle, and co-skipper, David Thomson, are currently sailing across the Pacific aboard a state-of-the-art, sixty-foot catamaran made from 12,500 reclaimed plastic bottles and Seretex, an innovative, self-reinforcing PET material that is completely recyclable. Through this and other eco-conscious initiatives, Adventure Ecology’s long-term vision is to create a global, youth-based community of change-makers that learn, share, speak and, most importantly, act to address our global sustainability issues in order to promote a greater respect, connection and responsibility for our Planet, its environment, species and people. Additional information is available at www.adventureecology.com | www.theplastiki.com.
