This past Saturday, we had a blast partnering with Hawai’i Marine Animal Response (HMAR) for our February cleanup at Point Panic. HMAR is the largest nonprofit marine species conservation, education, field support, rescue and stranding response organization based in Hawai’i. They have a Marine Debris Program (MDP) that is in the water almost every weekend removing and documenting marine debris. We love partnering with this team of enthusiastic, ocean-loving volunteers!
We ended up having one of our largest groups of volunteers ever, including our regular volunteers, HMAR’s Marine debris volunteers, and some new people we hope to see again in the future! The group included SCUBA divers, freedivers, and some land support too. We also lucked out with conditions that were some of the best we have seen in the last few months on land and in the water.
We had a total of 33 volunteers and were able to remove 268 total pounds of trash from the ocean reefs and sandy bottom. A few volunteers cleaned around the rocks by the water and around the beach park to find 10 pounds of trash. It takes a lot of paper and plastics to amount to 10 pounds!
Once all the trash from the ocean was collected, we sorted it into piles of similar items to be counted and logged. After the items are logged and weighed, we recycle any items we can including fishing weights, aluminum cans, glass containers, and plastic bottles. We always make every effort to recycle and reuse any items possible. A plate we found was even cleaned and used for snacks at a Superbowl party the next day.
As usual, we found some pretty interesting items. We found a baseball card, coffee pot, half of a charcoal grill, a paint bucket with brushes inside, 2 hats, a lawn chair,a cell phone case, a danger sign, 2 tires, and a padded chair cover. We also found a lot of the usual food wrappers, clothing, fishing gear, spark plugs (used as sinkers), single use plastics, aluminum cans, and glass bottles. We even had a volunteer find a GoPro with a light that we were able to return to its owner who had lost it the previous day!
Mahalo to HMAR and all of the volunteers who helped this past Saturday to make an important impact on marine debris that endangers our ocean ecosystem and the species that call it home! Join us for our next cleanup on March 11th!
