GOES Foundation Ocean Regeneration
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"Pro tanto quid retribuamus" … "What shall we give back in return for so much?"

We will survive climate disruption — but the loss of nature, and ocean acidification is a different proposition.

Plankton are the planet’s life-support system. Pollution is killing them. The GOES Foundation gathers the citizen-science evidence and delivers open-source solutions to eliminate pollution and regenerate the oceans.

Support our mission Read the Atlantic Survey Ocean Acidification report
80%
of biodiversity lost since 1970
~1%
of plankton dying every year
3bn
people who depend on the ocean for food
5,000
plankton samples collected across the Atlantic
Citizen-science survey

The Atlantic sampling map

352 stations · 8 sailing vessels · every particle counted and sized from the microscope images. The map shows each vessel’s sampling track across the Atlantic, alongside the overturning circulation and the 20°W meridional transects.

Atlantic survey — sampling tracks Open full results page →
Map of the North and Equatorial Atlantic showing GOES sampling stations from eight vessels, major surface and deep currents of the overturning circulation, Tara Pacific 2016 surface stations and the 20°W meridional transects
See the full sampling results

New: GOES now has a shorebase in Bocas del Toro, Panama — seahorsepoint.org. Subscribe to our newsletter →

The problem

The oceans are the planet’s lungs — and they are suffocating

Since the chemical revolution of the 1950s, a cocktail of toxic “forever chemicals”, microplastics and partially combusted carbon has been poisoning the sea. These particles concentrate toxins, the plankton eat them, and they die.

With no plankton there are no whales, seals, birds or fish — and no surface micro-layer to regulate humidity, wind and cloud formation. The oceans, not carbon dioxide alone, control the climate.

Around 30% of the world’s oceans — and 80% of the Southern Ocean — are now high-nutrient, low-chlorophyll (HNLC) zones. They are not technically dead zones, but the outcome is effectively the same.

Read our vision
30%
of the world’s oceans are now HNLC zones — effectively dead
80%
of the Southern Ocean is now high-nutrient, low-chlorophyll
40M t
Sargassum in the Atlantic (should be 1M)
8.03
Ocean pH today (8.2 in the 1940s)
World map of winter aragonite saturation against zonal ecological reference thresholds — an estimated 37% to 52% of the mapped winter ocean surface is already in the marginal zone. Polar and subpolar waters (threshold Ω 1.6), temperate waters (Ω 2.4) and tropical reef waters (Ω 3.3) are shaded by when each crosses its threshold, from below threshold now (2022–24) through 2055. Data: OceanSODA-ETHZ v2025, 1982–2024.
Citizen-science results

What 5,000 samples across the Atlantic revealed

20 yachts sampled the surface ocean every 12 hours at ~15°N. Filtered to 20 microns, the results were catastrophic — and unlike anything in the scientific record.

<1
Almost no life. We expected 1–5 zooplankton per 1000 ml. We found fewer than one animal in every 100 litres of water.
1000+
Carbon particles. We expected ~20 particles of organic matter. We found over 1,000 particles of partially combusted carbon per litre — which adsorb toxic chemicals just like plastic.
100×
Microfibres. We expected 1–2 microfibres per litre. We found up to 100 — and likely ten times more microplastic particles we couldn’t yet measure.
See the full sampling results
What we do

Evidence, solutions, and a global movement

Citizen-science sampling

Sailors worldwide collect plankton samples with simple kits and microscopes — building irrefutable evidence for policymakers.

Open-source solutions

The EDEN CYCLE wastewater system and CAFE filter stop pollution at source — fully open-source, because this is about survival, not profit.

Action & advocacy

From individuals ditching toxic products to world leaders, GOES drives the universal action needed to regenerate nature.
Evidence in the water

What the samples show

Microscope images from the Atlantic crossing — carbon particles, microfibres, and near-empty water.

Three filter-paper samples from the Atlantic crossing under the microscope: (a) a single blue copepod on an otherwise near-empty filter, (b) long microplastic fibres and a solitary organism, (c) a filter densely covered in carbon and plastic particles with no visible life.
(a) A lone copepod on a near-empty filter · (b) microplastic fibres · (c) carbon and plastic particles, no visible life
The biocurve: an importance-weighted index of documented marine animal groups stands at 35–54% of its 1850 baseline as cold-water aragonite crosses its threshold. The green biocurve declines from 1950 to 2023 with an uncertainty band; the orange line shows measured aragonite saturation in the subpolar North Atlantic sitting below the 1.6 impact threshold since the mid-1980s; a red conditional decline scenario steepens through a 2035–2045 vulnerability window; a purple band marks the illustrative critical-density regime below which recovery becomes very unlikely.
The biocurve: documented marine animal groups stand at 35–54% of their 1850 baseline as cold-water aragonite crosses its ecological threshold.
Read the full report
The good news

The ocean can recover — fast

Most marine life is under 1 mm and doubles in just three days. Remove the toxic brakes and the oceanic ecosystem can bounce back quickly — exactly as biodiversity rebounded during the COVID pause.

We may never cut carbon dioxide fast enough — but we can eliminate pollution, restore ocean pH, and regenerate ecosystems on land and at sea. That is the fight worth winning.

A starfish story

“There are too many starfish to make a difference,” the old man said. The child threw one back into the sea and replied: “It made a difference to that one.”

If we all do something — drop oxybenzone, cut plastic, go non-toxic — it adds up.

Latest

News & updates

All news
July 13, 2026

From Source to Source

From water Source to water Source, the transport of microplastic and toxic chemicals around the planet The GOES equatorial Atlantic…

Read more →