Fishing gear continues to dominate the debris washing up on
Hawaiian shores after the March 11, 2011, Japan tsunami.
An islandwide beach debris collection at Kaho`olawe by the
Kaho`olawe Island Reserve Commission was held March 13 and 14. Volunteers
collected 2,029 pounds of debris.
Of that, more than three-quarters was clearly from ocean or
waterway activities. More than 56 percent consisted of buoys and floats, many
of them associated with fishing activities.
Some of those floats were contaminated with mussels not
native to Hawai`i.
The data was tallied by Keep the Hawaiian Island Beautiful,
and the cleanups were partially funded through a grant from the Ocean
Conservancy and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The cleanup came up with 8,268 pieces of debris. By
quantity, they included 4676 buoys or floats, 1,365 plastic beverage bottles
and 16 glass ones; 675 pieces of rope, 592 fishing traps such as crab traps,
172 caps and lids, 168 pieces of fishing net.
Items totaling less than 100 units included 92 toys, 88
shoes or pieces of clothing, 77 strapping bands, 73 crates, 72 oil/lube
bottles, 52 fishing lures or light sticks, 33 straws or stirrers, 30 car parts,
23 cigarette lighters, 18 eating implements, 16 plastic bags, and a dozen pieces
of fishing line.
In small numbers were six beverage cans, five bleach or
cleaner bottles, two food containers, two pieces of shotgun shell, one si-pack
holder, a balloon and one light bulb.
Percentage-wise, the big items were 57 percent buoys or
floats, 16 percent plastic bottles, 8 percent ropes, 7 percent crab, lobster or
fishing traps, 2 percent fishing lures or light sticks, 2 percent caps and
lids, 1 percent shoes or clothing, 1 percent toys, and everything else less
than 1 percent per category.
The cleanup also collected tiny bits of plastic—microplastics—which
are being processed by the University of Hawai`i at Manoa pending research on
them at a later time.
© Jan TenBruggencate 2013
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