Date | October 29, 2021 – July 17, 2024 |
---|---|
Type | Fundraiser |
Cause | Marine pollution |
Budget | $33.79 million |
Organized by | |
Website | teamseas |
Team Seas (stylized as #TEAMSEAS) was an international collaborative fundraiser that was started by YouTubers MrBeast and Mark Rober as a follow-up to Team Trees. The fundraiser succeeded in raising over 33 million U.S. dollars. All of the donations from the fundraiser went to the Ocean Conservancy and The Ocean Cleanup, with the organisations splitting the donations. The fundraiser pledged to remove 30,000,000 pounds (14,000,000 kg) of marine debris from the ocean by removing 1 pound (0.45 kg) of marine debris from the ocean for every 1 dollar donated.[1] However, the removal of that amount of marine debris is of negligible consequence considering the fact that about the same amount of waste enters the ocean every 11-15 hours.[2] This means that during the entire duration of the fundraiser, approximately 18,562,500,000 pounds (8,419,808,368 kg) of debris had entered the ocean (or about 61,875% more than what the fundraiser ended up removing).
The preceding fundraiser, Team Trees, was started on October 25, 2019, by MrBeast and Mark Rober. They set to raise 20 million dollars, which was achieved.[3] As of the start date of Team Seas, donations are still able to be made on the Team Trees website and planting progress is updated there.[3] As of 11 August 2024[update], $34,080,191 has been raised.[4]
Team Seas aimed to remove 30,000,000 pounds (14,000,000 kg) of marine debris from the ocean by the end of 2021 by raising 30 million dollars, with one pound removed for every dollar donated.[1][3] The project was mass released over the internet on many different social media platforms on Friday October 29, 2021, at 1 PM (PT). On YouTube, thousands of creators from 145 countries, with a combined follow count of 1 billion, created videos about the fundraiser.[5][6]
On November 1, 2021, Tobi Lütke, CEO of Shopify, donated $1,200,001, exceeding the $1,000,001 he donated to Team Trees.[7][8]
On 10 May 2023, Donaldson, Rober, and the Team Seas twitter account jointly reported that the campaign was halfway done, and that 112,000 volunteers had cleaned 15.1 million pounds of waste in 63 countries.[9]
On 17 July 2024, through an announcement uploaded to YouTube, the duo announced that the project has been completed, and acknowledged the myriad of creators that partook in promoting it.[10][11] The completion of Team Seas was "Verified by a third party".[12]