Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 34, Number 5, 1 May 2017 — Tons of trash removed from Midway Atoll [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Tons of trash removed from Midway Atoll

Roughly 100,000 pounds of marine debris was removed from Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument and sent to Honolulu last month. The 12 shipping containers of debris will ultimately be incinerated at the city's H-Power plant to produce electricity.

The debris had been collected Midway and Kure Atolls' reefs and beaches over the past six years, and stored on the tarmac at Midway awaiting shipping. The collection was a joint effort by the State of Hawai'i, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Oeeanie and Atmospheric Administration. "The success of this project is linked to effective inter-agency coordination, eommunieahon and action," said Jason Misaki, O'ahu Wildlife Manager, DLNR's Division of Forestry and Wildlife. "Marine debris in the Monument affects all partners, making joint efforts like this one extremely instrumental to our continued protection of resources." Marine debris poses a threat to wildlife, who may ingest or get

entangled in it. More than five tons of plastic debris ends up on Midway eaeh year and plastics and derelict fishing gear has been found in nests on the beaches. "Marine debris are not something you ean elean up just onee; it takes a sustained effort over time," said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Superintendent Matt Brown. "By working with the State of Hawai'i, Office of Hawaiian Affairs and NOAA, we ean accomplish more than any one agency on its own to elean up marine debris and educate the puhlie to prevent it from entering the ecosystem."

Scuba and free divers removed a pieee of derelict fishing gear that was more than 28 feet long, 7 feet wide, and had a dense curtain that extended 1 6 feet deep. The large net weighed 1 1 .5 tons. - Photo: NOAA