The Hawaii Wildlife Fund ended its 2014 marine debris season Friday by loading 4.5 tons of net and line, most of which was collected from the southeast Ka’u coast, into a container for shipment to Oahu.
The Hawaii Wildlife Fund ended its 2014 marine debris season Friday by loading 4.5 tons of net and line, most of which was collected from the southeast Ka’u coast, into a container for shipment to Oahu.
The 40-foot trailer was provided by Matson Navigation’s Ka Ipu Aina program. The container will be shipped to Honolulu, where Schnitzer Steel will chop it into pieces and then be burned at the Covanta H-Power plant. This Nets-to-Energy partnership was arranged by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Marine Debris Program to keep the material out of the landfill and create electricity with it. Since 2005, HWF’s tally for these net and line shipments is about 75 tons.
“This container shipment is only a fraction of the total debris we’ve collected from the Hawaii Island shoreline,” said Megan Lamson, HWF marine debris project coordinator. “This year, winds and currents brought in different proportions of marine debris — less net and line, and a higher percentage of other floating debris, including fish traps, buoys, crates, tires, boat pieces, and an extensive list of normal household items.”
While HWF works with other groups on the island gathering debris from multiple sites, its main focus is on the Kaʻu coast where more debris washes ashore than any other place in the main Hawaiian Islands. The organization began this work in 2003 and in recent years has been removing an annual average of 15 to 20 tons for a total to date of about 173 tons. The HWF marine debris cleanup work is supported with a grant from NOAA.
“We have other local partners that also help with in-kind donations and funding and we have a large group of volunteers that are critical to the overall effort,” Lamson said. “The container loading, for example, would not be possible without the tractor assistance provided by JD Services LLC. We organize community cleanups about every other month and dozens of volunteers show up to these events. Our volunteers are an enthusiastic mix of regulars and first-time collectors and are great fun to work with; we recognize them as our most effect tool in our marine debris removal efforts.”
The next HWF cleanup in Ka’u is Feb. 7. To volunteer or for more information, visit wildhawaii.org, email kahakai.cleanups@gmail.com or call 769-7629.