Hey, it’s Alex.
I don’t usually write something this long, but every once in a while, it feels important to slow down and really take stock. Not just of the numbers or the milestones, but of the moments that shaped us. The ones that stay with you long after the boats are docked and the crews head home.

We didn’t start 4ocean with a business plan. We started it because we couldn’t ignore what we were seeing anymore. We were surfers first. The ocean was where we felt most grounded. And slowly it became impossible to paddle out without pushing past plastic. Bottles. Bags. Fishing line. Debris moving with the tide like it belonged there.

In early 2017, we pulled our first pound of trash out of the ocean. No ceremony. No cameras. Just work. At the time, it didn’t feel like a beginning. It felt like a line we couldn’t step back over. Once you take action, you’re responsible for what comes next.

The bracelet idea came from a simple question. How do we let other people be part of this, even if they’re nowhere near the water? One bracelet. One pound removed. No vague promises. No offsets. Just direct action tied to something tangible. That clarity mattered, and people responded almost immediately.

That first year in Florida was all grit. Boats broke down. Weather shut us out. We learned quickly that cleanup is real work and often dangerous work. It requires planning, training, and respect for the people doing it. Early on, we made a decision that still defines us. This would never be volunteer labor dressed up as impact. Cleanup would be dignified work. Full-time crews. Fair wages. Health insurance. Stability.

By 2018, we were approaching our first million pounds removed. That number felt impossible when we started, and it forced us to think bigger. We expanded into Bali, Haiti, Guatemala, Hawaii, and Indonesia because those waterways were overwhelmed and because the communities living alongside them deserved opportunity, not exploitation.

Hiring locally changed everything. Cleanup became more than environmental work. It became economic stability. Paychecks meant school tuition. Leadership emerged within crews. Pride returned to places that had been written off for years. Those moments stay with me.

That same year brought recognition we never chased. Forbes 30 Under 30. Surfer Magazine’s Agent of Change. I appreciated it, but the moments that mattered most were quieter. A crew member telling us this job changed their family’s future. A fisherman showing us clearer water where trash once collected.

In 2019, we crossed three million pounds removed and launched our Ocean Plastic Recovery Vessel. That was a turning point. Cleaning beaches matters, but stopping plastic before it reaches the ocean is how you create lasting change

That year, we also set the Guinness World Record for the largest underwater cleanup. Divers pulled up ghost nets, tires, appliances, debris that had been destroying ecosystems silently for decades. It forced attention beneath the surface, where so much of the damage had been hidden.

By our second anniversary, we had more than 200 full-time captains and crew members operating across South Florida, the Caribbean, and Southeast Asia. At that point, this was no longer an experiment. It was a responsibility.

In 2020, we crossed seven million pounds removed, then eleven million by the end of the year. Even during a time when the world felt uncertain, our crews kept showing up. Pollution doesn’t pause. Rivers don’t stop flowing. And the people doing this work depended on consistency.

That year, we formalized something that had always been true in spirit. We became a Certified B Corporation and later a Public Benefit Corporation. That decision mattered deeply to us. It locked our mission into our legal structure and ensured that environmental impact, worker well-being, and community responsibility would always matter as much as growth.

By 2022, we crossed twenty million pounds removed. Twenty million pounds of material that would no longer entangle marine life, smother reefs, or poison coastlines. Every pound removed represents prevention. A turtle that doesn’t ingest plastic. A seabird that doesn’t feed debris to its chicks. A mangrove that can recover.

Then there was the Motagua River.

Standing on its banks is something I’ll never forget. The volume of plastic moving through that river is overwhelming. In 2023, we deployed industrial-grade river boom systems designed to intercept plastic before it reached the Caribbean Sea.
 What accumulated behind those booms became known as Plastic Island. It wasn’t something to celebrate. It was a wake-up call. And it was proof that intervention at scale works.

In early 2024, we crossed thirty-five million pounds removed. We shared what that number really meant. Hundreds of millions of plastic bottles. Nearly a billion toothbrushes. Numbers help explain scale, but what mattered more was what we could see. Cleaner shorelines. Returning wildlife. Ecosystems starting to breathe again.

We also evolved how we fund cleanup. Our bracelets grew into collaborations with artists and designers who share our values. We expanded into reusable products to reduce waste at the source while funding removal downstream. Scale demands evolution.

We doubled down on accountability too. Green Circle Certification verified our collection processes and recycled material claims. SeaTrees helped us offset our carbon footprint through blue-carbon restoration. We committed to 1% for the Planet. Transparency became non-negotiable.

As we close out 2025, we crossed another line that still feels surreal. We moved past forty-five million pounds removed. Forty-five million. When I say that out loud, I still picture that first pound back in 2017 and how impossible all of this would have sounded then.

And now we can see fifty million in our sight for early 2026.

That number isn’t a finish line. It’s a reminder of what’s possible when people decide to act instead of look away. More boats on the water. More full-time crews. More plastic stopped before it reaches the ocean. More marine life given a real chance to recover.

Honestly, it’s been a ride. One we never could have predicted and one I’m deeply grateful to be on. The momentum we’re feeling right now comes from years of showing up, learning the hard way, and staying true to the mission even when it wasn’t easy.

There’s no sense of slowing down. If anything, it feels like we’re just getting started.

The socio-economic impact has been just as meaningful as the environmental one. In regions where opportunity was limited, cleanup created stability. Captains became leaders. Families gained security. Communities reclaimed pride in their waterways.

And the ocean responded. Cleaner nesting grounds. Healthier reefs. Fewer entanglements. More life. The kind of impact that builds quietly, day after day.

There is still so much work ahead. The ocean needs all of us. But every sunrise launch, every cleared river, every message from someone who felt hope again because of something as simple as a bracelet reminds me why we started and why we keep going.

I’m incredibly grateful you’re part of this.