Kamāʻoa beach coastal cleanup event with Hawaiʻi Wildlife Fund
Hawaiʻi Wildlife Fund is a leader in the Hawaiʻi Nei Marine Debris Removal Partnership. Over the past two years, the Hawaiʻi Nei Marine Debris Removal Project, a collaborative partnership with three groups, has worked to remove a combined 369,393 pounds of pollution from four different Hawaiian Islands.
Made possible through a grant awarded by the NOAA Marine Debris Program, this effort was led by Hawai‘i Wildlife Fund on the islands of Hawai‘i and Maui; Surfrider Foundation on Kauaʻi; and Pūlama Lānaʻi on the island of Lānaʻi.
We’re helping to use marine debris we collect for research, art, and re-use initiatives. The Hawaiian archipelago acts like a sieve and collects floating debris from around the North Pacific basin in what’s been dubbed the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch”, a gyre that is estimated to be larger than the state of Texas.
We remove an estimated 15-20 tons per year, mostly large bundles of net and line (many weighing over 1,000 pounds) that are removed with equipment built from donations from people like you. Working with Matson, a local shipper, we send the nets and line to O‘ahu to participate in the NOAA Nets-to-Energy partnership, where they will be used again. The rest of the trash, including the 4,000+ bags of small plastic items collected to date, goes to local landfills for safe destruction unless they can be repurposed for recycling, research, or art projects. Read about the Hoʻōla One microplastic cleaning machine in News.
Volunteers and donors from Hawai‘i, and from across the globe, are a critical part of this shoreline restoration effort. You can help in this global effort by removing marine debris from your local beach and joining us to reduce your own personal single-use plastics footprint and encouraging our local communities and governments to do the same.
Read Big Island Now article: Hawai‘i Nei Marine Debris Removal Project Continues
• Click here for our Field Guide to Common Marine Debris Brochure
• Click here for our Things You Can Do To Reduce Marine Debris Brochure
Hawaiʻi Island & Maui Nui Marine Debris Removal
