Washington paddlers Steve Weileman and Ken Campbell started the Ikkatsu Project in January 2012 with the simple idea of taking a sea kayak trip along the roadless coast of the Olympic Peninsula, looking for debris from the tsunami that struck Japan in March 2011.
Months later, the film Weileman and Campbell shot on the trip almost as an afterthought, blossomed into a full-fledged, award-winning documentary (watch the full film below). Moreover, the pair began working with scientists to research marine debris in general, conducting beach surveys that could be used to coordinate future clean-up efforts. As Cambell explains, “The project progressed from being a one-time vacation idea to a full-time vocation.”
In 2013, the Ikkatsu team began working with Oikonos, a non-profit that researches plastic ingestion by sea birds. They also started doing presentations in schools to help students understand the connections between ocean currents, marine debris and the environment. In July, Weileman and Campbell headed to Alaska to conduct surveys on the remote beaches of Cook Inlet in south-central Alaska. Once again, the pair filmed their journey and are currently putting the finishing touches on a new documentary, slated for release in spring 2014, called Ikkatsu: The Secrets of Augustine.
According to Cambell, the volcanic island of Augustine has never been visited by modern day paddlers. But even on these remote beaches, marine debris was everywhere. “It’s a sobering thought, that every piece of plastic that has ever been made is still in existence,” says Cambell. “It’s even more sobering to see so much of it in such a wild and primal place.”
