On today’s episode of Soul Project we talk to Bonnie Monteleone, Scientist, Artist, Entrepreneur, ocean advocate, documentary film maker and soo much more! Bonnie began her journey into the plastic ocean crisis in 2009 during her first field study exploring the North Atlantic Gyre while working on her Masters degree at University North Carolina, Wilmington. Since that time Bonnie has collected plastic marine samples globally including from four of the five main ocean gyres, the Caribbean, and Pyramid Lake, outside of Reno, Nevada. Deeply impacted by the devasting reality of the plastic crisis in our oceans and beyond, Bonnie founded the nonprofit Plastic Ocean Project (POP) in 2012 and sits as the Executive Director and Director of Science and Research and Academic Partnerships. Based in Wilmington, North Carolina, POP’s mission is to rid the ocean of plastic waste.
In addition to running POP, Bonnie works in the Environmental Studies Department at UNC Wilmington as an Adjunct Instructor teaching a Plastic Marine Debris Field Studies course and manages a lab working with student Directed Independent Studies (DIS) research. Furthermore, Bonnie is an accomplished artist who has turned some of the plastics collected on her voyages into modern artistic masterpieces, a traveling art exhibit titled “What Goes Around Comes Around”, which is equally beautiful as it is educational.
An accomplished advocate for the ocean, Bonnie’s current project is a documentary film titled “If the Ocean Could Talk”, a voice for the North Atlantic slated for release on World Ocean Day June 2022.
Please enjoy our conversation as today as Bonnie shares her incredibly inspiring journey to helping save our oceans and beyond!
Please check out Plastic Oceans Project’s Website and connect on Social media!
https://www.plasticoceanproject.orgInstagram: @plasticoceanproject.inc
Facebook: Plastic Ocean Project
