Apr 23, 2021
Just in time for Earth Day, the Associated Press carried a story Thursday about a crew of people who returned from a three week cleanup effort in the northernmost islands of the Hawaiian archipelago. The group spent their time working at the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, 1,300 miles north of Honolulu, and came back with 47 tons that’s 94,000 pounds of marine plastics. The haul included lost and abandoned fishing nets, buoys, crates, bottles, fishing gear, washed up surfboards, even cigarette lighters that littered the beaches and snared the wildlife trying to live there.
The monument is in the middle of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a huge area of floating debris that floats around the ocean.
6 hours ago in National, Trending
In this April 5, 2021 photo provided by Matthew Chauvin, a juvenile Hawaiian monk seal rests on top of a pile of ghost nets on the windward shores of Laysan Island in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. A crew has returned from the remote Northwestern Hawaiian Islands with a boatload of marine plastic and abandoned fishing nets that threaten to entangle endangered Hawaiian monk seals and other marine animals on the tiny, uninhabited beaches stretching for more than 1,300 miles north of Honolulu. (Matthew Chauvin, PapahÄnaumokuÄkea Marine Debris Project via AP â NOAA/NMFS Permit No. 22677) Photo: Associated Press
5 hours ago in National, Trending
In this April 5, 2021 photo provided by Matthew Chauvin, a juvenile Hawaiian monk seal rests on top of a pile of ghost nets on the windward shores of Laysan Island in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. A crew has returned from the remote Northwestern Hawaiian Islands with a boatload of marine plastic and abandoned fishing nets that threaten to entangle endangered Hawaiian monk seals and other marine animals on the tiny, uninhabited beaches stretching for more than 1,300 miles north of Honolulu. (Matthew Chauvin, PapahÄnaumokuÄkea Marine Debris Project via AP â NOAA/NMFS Permit No. 22677) Photo: Associated Press
5 hours ago in National, Trending
In this April 5, 2021 photo provided by Matthew Chauvin, a juvenile Hawaiian monk seal rests on top of a pile of ghost nets on the windward shores of Laysan Island in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. A crew has returned from the remote Northwestern Hawaiian Islands with a boatload of marine plastic and abandoned fishing nets that threaten to entangle endangered Hawaiian monk seals and other marine animals on the tiny, uninhabited beaches stretching for more than 1,300 miles north of Honolulu. (Matthew Chauvin, Papahānaumokuākea Marine Debris Project via AP NOAA/NMFS Permit No. 22677) Photo: Associated Press
The latest expedition focused on the shorelines of the various atolls, and a trip later this year will remove nets from the reefs that surround the islands.
A NOAA study estimated that the shores of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands accumulate about 57 tons (52 metric tons) of debris each year. An analysis of the upcoming reef removal is expected to estimate the total amount of debris that gathers on both the beaches and the critical reef ecosystems that surround them, giving researchers a more complete view of the problem.
The crew of 12, which included people from the marine debris project, federal agencies, Hawaii and a local university, removed debris from Laysan Island, Lisianski Island, Midway Atoll, French Frigate Shoals and Kure Atoll.