Note: This blog post will be updated with entries by team members of Papahānaumokuākea Marine Debris Project. All photos here and on the separate entries are by Andrew Sullivan-Haskins. Scroll down for new entries as we receive them.
The annual goal of the Papahānaumokuākea Marine Debris Removal Project is to reduce the threats of marine debris (primarily entanglement hazards) to the critically endangered Hawaiian monk seal, threatened Hawaiian green sea turtle, threatened humpback whale, protected seabirds, and sensitive coral reef ecosystems.
1,231,347 pounds of marine debris has been removed from Papahānaumokuākea since 2020.
This spring is their 18-day fly-in removal mission to Kuaihelani. The goal of this mission will be to remove 50,000 pounds of marine debris and clean/restore 300 acres of coral reef habitat from April 27 to May 14, 2026. Meet the incredible team who are working tirelessly for nearly three weeks.
Day 1
We landed under a sky that felt alive.
Late on the night of April 27, as our aircraft touched down on the remote runway of Kuaihelani, we stepped out into a world few ever experience. An island of less than 1,200 acres, yet it is home to nearly seven million seabirds. To put that into perspective, imagine an area smaller than many Honolulu neighborhoods or a fraction of New York's Central Park, now fill it with life, sound, and movement beyond anything…
Day 2
Aloha mai kākou,
I have the joy of sharing our day with you in my first nightly update. For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Lauren, and I serve as the Logistics Specialist for PMDP. I’ve been fortunate to be part of this team for the past four years, and I’m tremendously grateful to return to Kuaihelani for our first mission of 2026.
It’s our second day on Kuaihelani, and already it feels like we’re settling into the island’s cadence. The pace is different here – life feels simpler, more intentional, and deeply focused. We all come from different walks of life, brought together…
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Days 3 & 4
Our morning began with a surprise greeting from the resident pod of spinner dolphins in the boat harbor – a rare and cherished sighting for us all that we couldn’t help but see as a sign of the good things to come. With the sun bursting bright in the sky, part of our team and partners launched a boat to survey reefs within the atoll. Kuaihelani is home to some of the world’s most unique reefs, featuring stunning neon purple rice coral, massive, brightly colored uhu (parrotfish), bold tritons, and an array of rare endemic fishes endemic. Our partners, Hauʻoli and Kenika, described it as…
Day 5
Kuaihelani is a place with many moods that can change in an instant. We woke up to high winds and dark cloudy skies. It brought a dramatic intensity to the island that settled into our bones. Still, the team moved with focus. Through the bitingly cold winds, we launched our boats into choppy waters and crossed the channel to Eastern Island.
A year ago, we walked the same shores, restoring them to their pristine, natural state. It’s a weird, disheartening feeling to come back to the same place and find it looking as if you had never been there. The time between our visits…
Days 6 & 7
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…
Day 8
Kuaihelani is a landscape of contradictions. Here are the crumbling reminders of nations at war- infrastructure built hastily to accommodate a rapidly changing globe. Masses of rusting and twisted steel, tangles of copper protruding from the dunes, shattered concrete calving into the surf, and miles of flaking iron holding back the sea. This place was once a buzzing outpost in the wartime pacific, willed into existence by the heavy hand of men who did not have the luxury to consider the fate of its original inhabitants. Yes, the wildlife here had a rough go for many decades. But thankfully the priorities…
Days 9 & 10
Teammate Matt McDole: This mission is my first time on Kuaihelani during the albatross nesting season. Living daily among this many nesting seabirds is truly staggering. The birds don't nest just in fields. They're everywhere, in every nook, cranny, and wayside along your daily route. I knew the albatross would be large, but I didn't realize that even the chicks are still huge birds. Some are larger than a cat or a small dog. The chicks nest in one spot on the ground and basically don't leave.
Having this many large animals around you on a daily basis means they become your neighbors. You usually see the same chicks during your daily routine, and can't help but notice things about them. I noticed one small chick in particular…
Day 11
Our team wrapped up all remaining work on Eastern and Spit Island by lunchtime, marking a major milestone for this mission. Once we finished there, we turned our attention toward Sand Island and spent much of the afternoon slaying nets and transporting debris. With sunny skies overhead and moderate winds keeping us cool, the day carried an easy steadiness. We are in the groove, doing what we do best, and have settled into a steady rhythm largely dictated by the sun. We rise and do morning protocol as the sun…
Days 12 & 13
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…
Day 14
This evening, we said a hui hou to the majority of our team as they boarded the plane and departed Kuaihelani. Before sending them off, we spent the day tying up loose ends along the shorelines of Sand Island and making the most of our final working hours together.
In classic PMDP fashion, the island had one last challenge waiting for us: a massive net buried deep in the sand, discovered during the team’s final hours on island. What could have felt daunting instead became…
