While we consider ourselves to be primarily underwater marine debris removal specialists, the shorelines in Papahānaumokuākea also do regularly require our attention. The atoll of Kuaihelani has about nine miles of natural sandy shoreline, which is the most of any single location within the Sanctuary. And holy cow does it get dirty. We'll spend a few days in the water cleaning the reef here, but the atoll's reef structure eventually sends most big nets (and ALL the plastics) to the shoreline, so we'll focus most of our effort there.
To give you a sense for this, last year here at Kuaihelani, we removed 6,330 lbs of nets from the reefs, but a whopping 44,430 lbs of nets and plastics from the shorelines. So, each day we go forth, suited up in our goofy multi-colored bio-secure quarantine clothing, and head across the channel to the adjacent island (Eastern Island), where we go about our business of removing marine plastic on an industrial scale.
Tomorrow weʻll begin to tally up the weight weʻve removed so far.
Thanks for following along!
Kevin and the PMDP Team
Day 7
Today our team continued along the route we’ve been steadily carving—starting on the northeast side of the island and working our way south. Along the eastern shoreline, the beach shifted into a scatter of small plastics, a confetti of fragments woven into the sand. Under light winds and bright skies, spirits stayed high as we moved together, covering ground with a steady rhythm.
Rounding the southern shore, we were met with a more familiar and formidable challenge. This stretch of the island is known for giant concrete blocks and metal rods sticking out of the ground – all remnants of Midway’s past infrastructure – which excel at entangling giant nets that wash through. Wielding knives and shovels our team got to work. After a day of small plastics, the shift felt almost welcome. We pride ourselves in our ability to tackle big nets so, as challenging as they were, we were excited to flex our skillset. There’s a certain satisfaction in untangling something so stubborn, in slowly turning a snare back into something we can remove.
We know we have our work cut out for us with some big nets taunting us further down the beach. We’re making strong progress across Eastern Island and are hopeful we’ll wrap up most of it tomorrow.
Lauren, and the PMDP Team