There's nothing like an enormous fishing net to really bring a team together. Today's challenge was a 4,500 pound bruiser partially buried in the sand near the northwest tip of Sand Island. A new baby monk seal and its mother had staked out this territory as their nursery over the last couple of weeks- a critical time for a very sensitive little creature. To most seals I know, a pile of nets on the shore is actually a pretty attractive nest to curl up in for a nap- and activity the do frequently. With hundreds of loops of fine mesh and rope to get stuck in, this often ends poorly for seals young and old.
Let's put it this way: a teflon pan could get stuck in this stuff. So, while we plan to remove every scrap of plastic and net from this entire atoll during this cleanup, this big net was more critical than others.
By the end of one of these cleanup trips, needless to say our team gets a little tired. Every team is different. Cutting a net up into twenty 200lb chunks and carrying them on our backs over the water to the boat in the noon sun can usually break some spirits. With fatigue, some tend to get quiet and withdrawn. Not this team. This team sings the Lion King soundtrack in three part harmony and passes out gummy worms. I appreciate this team very much.
Today held other excitements- The first field test of two new in-house developed prototype net cutting tools- the pendulum saw, and the wire saw. We've always stuggled to quickly and efficiently cut these huge bundles of netting, and there really isn't anything out there on the market that does the trick. So, our crack team of engineers (Owen, Jesse and Derek) have been working on completely new, innovative designs for tools that can take the net cutting process from hours down to minutes. The initial tests today were very promising! The designs will likely require another couple rounds of iteration before we get to optimal usability, but I can't tell you how excited I am about the possibilities!
We are still behind on weighing the many loads of marine debris collected over the last 10 days, but we've caught up enough to give you a running number, not including all of today's haul:
38,000 pounds of plastics and nets have been removed from the shorelines and reefs here at Kuaihelani. With about 2 miles of fringing reef and half a mile of beach left to clean, we're nearing the completion of our cleanup. This will be the third year in a row we've cleaned the entirely of this atoll. Over those three years, we've been conducting an accumulation study, breaking down all the shoreline and reef area into survey segments and weighing nets and plastics per segment. With this data, we plan to write up a small paper on accumulation rates here.
Onward!
Kevin and the PMDP Team
Day 13
Our plan of the day took us back to the neon blue waters of Kuaihelani’s northeastern fringing reef. We are closing in on our final days working as a team and it was nice to break up the routine of shoreline cleanups to get our fins wet and complete our remaining reef survey areas.
One can’t help but think this is possibly the best commute to work you could ask for: sunny skies overhead, impossibly blue water below, and dolphins leaping at the bow of your boat. Our office for the day was the vibrant purple rice coral that uniquely grows in fields across the reefs of Kuaihelani. To me, they’re the most beautiful reefs I’ve ever seen. Our co-workers: massive kala (unicorn fish), omilu (bluefin trevally), giant schools of butterfly fish, and, of course, our smiling teammates.
Our two boat teams worked on opposite ends of the fringing reef and worked towards each other. We steadily swept through the expanse of reefs, pulling up nets as we came across them. We are happy to report that the reefs were largely healthy. We will have the final weight of everything we collected tomorrow. We ended the day as one big team, taking a moment to enjoy each other’s company and the beauty surrounding us. Tomorrow is our last day of operations as a full team. We are soaking in every moment we can get together.
Thanks for following along!
Lauren and the PMDP Team