Team Seas (stylized as #TEAMSEAS) was an international collaborative fundraising campaign launched on October 29, 2021, by YouTubers MrBeast (Jimmy Donaldson) and Mark Rober as a follow-up to the earlier Team Trees initiative. The campaign aimed to raise $30 million to remove 30 million pounds (approximately 13.6 million kg) of marine debris from oceans, rivers, and beaches, with the pledge that one pound of trash would be removed for every one dollar donated.
Background
The campaign was announced in October 2021 and built upon the model of Team Trees, a 2019 fundraiser that raised over $23 million to plant trees. Team Seas was launched with coordinated content from thousands of YouTube creators across 145 countries, with a combined audience of approximately 1 billion followers.
Fundraising
The campaign reached its $30 million goal by January 1, 2022. Notable donations included $4 million from entrepreneur Austin Russell, $2 million from an anonymous donor, and contributions from figures such as Shopify CEO Tobias Lütke, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, and various creator and corporate donors. In total, the campaign raised $34,080,191.
Beneficiaries
All donations were split equally between two nonprofit organizations:
- Ocean Conservancy — responsible for organizing beach, underwater, and "ghost gear" (abandoned fishing equipment) cleanups through its International Coastal Cleanup network.
- The Ocean Cleanup — a Dutch nonprofit that deploys Interceptor technology to capture plastic debris in rivers before it reaches the ocean.
Results and Completion
On July 16, 2024, MrBeast and Mark Rober announced that the project had been completed, with a verified total of 34,080,191 pounds (approximately 15.5 million kg) of trash removed from marine environments. This exceeded the original goal by over 4 million pounds. The cleanup efforts spanned 73 countries and involved more than 172,000 volunteers. Ocean Conservancy conducted nearly 2,000 cleanups, while The Ocean Cleanup deployed Interceptor projects in the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Jamaica, and Malaysia.
Impact and Reception
The campaign generated over 1.3 billion views from #TeamSeas-tagged videos and received coverage from outlets including PBS NewsHour, Variety, and Business Wire. Some environmental commentators, such as atmospheric scientist and YouTuber Simon Clark, noted that the amount of plastic removed, while significant, represented a small fraction of the estimated 8 million metric tons (approximately 17.6 billion pounds) of plastic entering the ocean annually. Mark Rober responded that the campaign's broader goal was to inspire public awareness and build political will for systemic policy changes.
