You could say that Free Range Ocean has been two decades in the making. Longer if you count back to the childhood dreams. But it was in 2023 that it came to life with the purchase of S.V. Freeranger, a 50ft offshore cruising sailboat that is our expedition vessel and family home.

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Our motivations are many. On one hand it's the adventure. The chance to roam freely around the one ocean that connects us all, powered by the wind and curiosity. To respectfully and responsibly visit people and places, learn about cultures and nature and immerse ourselves in the highs and lows of first-hand experiences that come when you step outside your comfort zone. 

 

On the other hand, it's the opportunity presented by our combined 40-year careers in environmental justice, marine resource management and conservation communications to do something wonderful together towards the ‘ocean we need for the future we want'.

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This is the inspiration for Free Range Ocean.

 

Our focus is three things 

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1. A Journey with Purpose - Contributing to, and enabling other boaters and sea-going folk to contribute to the smorgasbord of ocean citizen science and community projects that urgently need support and volunteers, including the establishment and expansion of the first global citizen science Directory dedicated to ocean projects.
    

2. Adventure Science & Storytelling - Advancing knowledge and understanding of our global ocean by hosting local initiatives, early-career researchers and storytellers on board FREERANGER in the countries we visit. 
    

3. Outreach and Innovation - Using FREERANGER as a platform for outreach and innovation, and as a testbed for innovative research-based or green-operational maritime technologies, from the simple solutions to the high-tech.
    

The end goal?

 

To inform, inspire and enable others to have their own positive impact on our ocean with an 'everyone, and every action counts' philosophy.

 

In all our years working in the environmental space where the problems and challenges can feel overwhelming and hope is hard to find, we always remember a favourite quote that we can all relate to -

 

"If you think you're too small to make a difference, you've never been to bed with a mosquito!"

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And so, more than a decade later, two boats in, having lived, worked and sailed in dozens of countries all over the world and with a growing network of partners, supporters and the endorsement for our work by the folk at UN Ocean Decade, we are now truly on our way.

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The 2022 UNESCO State of the Ocean report reminds us, 'scientific knowledge illuminates the way to reversing the decline in ocean health, conserving marine life, addressing ocean aspects of climate change and using the ocean sustainably to improve people’s lives.'

 

Yet collecting data from our ocean is a vast, difficult and expensive task. One that quite honestly needs all hands-on deck to achieve.

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In mid-2024 we launched the Ocean Citizen Science Project directory. It's a freely accessible online platform that people can use to explore and discover interesting projects they can participate in - be it boat owners sampling seawater for plankton while sailing off shore, or families at the beach surveying for invasive species, inshore fishers reporting on kelp forests or water-tourists sharing whale photos of their sightings on their adventures. 

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Around the same time, inspired by the courageous wanderings of our parents and grandparents and by Duncan's upbringing at sea, we set sail from British Columbia in Canada for a multi-year global voyage.

 

The dream is to be able to have a very special period of time together as a family while participating in citizen science and ocean conservation projects along the way.

 

We hope in part that the chance for our kids to grow up with the firsthand experiences that boatlife offer will teach them some life skills about being resourceful, thoughtful, the power of nature, and a break from what can be an overwhelming material culture out there.

 

No doubt we will all experience what it really means to be self-sufficient, to respect nature, not to be wasteful, to take care of things, to mend them, to be responsible - but still have fun!

 

We call ourselves the Freerange Crew. 

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We encourage you to join us for the journey!

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Larissa Clark & Duncan Copeland