About 80 Hawaii Preparatory Academy students in fourth, fifth and seventh grades and 15 teachers and parent volunteers recently participated in the annual International Coastal Cleanup sponsored by The Ocean Conservancy.
About 80 Hawaii Preparatory Academy students in fourth, fifth and seventh grades and 15 teachers and parent volunteers recently participated in the annual International Coastal Cleanup sponsored by The Ocean Conservancy.
The students, who focused their efforts at Spencer Beach Park, Kawaihae Small Boat Harbor and Kawaihae Surf Park, gathered about 300 pounds of debris, including 2,700 cigarette butts, 1,300 plastic and metal bottle caps and 341 food wrappers. The students also gathered fishing line, a car battery, an end table and an espresso machine. Seventh-graders analyzed and documented their findings.
The International Coastal Cleanup is the worldʻs largest volunteer effort for oceans and waterways. Volunteers of all ages from every continent removed trash and recorded specific types of marine debris being collected, allowing The Ocean Conservancy to compile, analyze and track this data year-by-year and make discoveries about the behaviors that cause the debris.