FRANK M. FREITAS

Marine Debris Technician II

Hometown: Fairfield, California

Current Residence: Honmoku Manzaka, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa-ken, Japan

Frank’s family emigrated from Spain to Hawaii in the early 1900s to work in Oahu’s sugar cane fields and eventually migrated to the West Coast of California where they labored as farm workers. He was raised by his grandparents in a landlocked farming town and found his way to Berkeley, where he earned a degree in operations research. His work in the last few years has focused on climate change, connecting his career to his lifelong love of the ocean. Frank is an addicted surfer, outrigger paddler, prone paddler and beach cleaner who loves to build paipos and alaias from discarded lumber that washes up on local beaches. His current hometown of Yokohama is close to a number of beautiful but polluted shorelines and he splits his time on the weekend between picking trash and paddling with the local outrigger club. He has volunteered for PMDP for the last two years and is incredibly excited to join the mission to Kuaihelani and play a more direct role in preserving the world’s oceans.