Turning the Tides
Pacific Whale Foundation leads Maui’s rapid response to marine debris
Story by Savannah Dagupion | Photographs by Anna Garner
On Maui’s windward shores, where the trades press against the coastline and winter swells comb the sand, debris arrives with the tide. Thick ropes tangle in naupaka. Plastic buoys wedge into lava rocks. Nets, hardened by salt and sun, lie half-buried above the high-water line after drifting thousands of miles across the Pacific.
That’s when Brianna Simon steps in.
As conservation and outreach manager at Pacific Whale Foundation, Simon leads Maui’s Marine Debris Rapid Response Group. When reports come in, she assembles volunteers and tools to remove heavy nets, buoys and industrial fishing gear as quickly as possible.
Last year, what was reported as a single net at Waiehu Beach Park turned out to be a buried conglomerate – layers of tangled nets fused together under the sand. Over a week, teams of 10 volunteers dug it out. Machinery was eventually brought in to lift the mass, which weighed 2,500 pounds.
In its third year as Maui’s official response organization, Pacific Whale Foundation mobilizes between 50 and 100 volunteers each month. Some work the shoreline. Others join scuba dive teams at Keoneʻōʻio, where recreational fishing line and lead weights are cut away from reefs.
The lead is saved and sorted. Community members melt it down, repurposing it into dive weights or art. Nets and plastics are packed into a shipping container and sent to the Center for Marine Debris Research at Hawaiʻi Pacific University on Oʻahu. There, materials are cataloged and shredded for reuse in products such as plastic lumber.
Each haul adds to a growing record. Researchers tracking the debris have identified Asian countries and U.S. fisheries as sources. The waste is carried by currents that concentrate in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch before fragments drift toward Hawaiʻi. Trade winds then push much of it onto windward shores, where access can be difficult and removal labor intensive.
For now, Simon said the work focuses on building that record – tracking what washes ashore, where it lands and what it’s made of. “Hopefully we can build up enough data for policy change or let people know internationally this is an issue and we have the information to back it up.”
Anyone who spots large debris can submit a report through the Hawaiʻi Department of Land and Natural Resources marine debris reporting form online or call 833-4DA-NETS, helping keep Maui’s shores cleaner.
Volunteers with Pacific Whale Foundation pull a heavy fishing net from a shoreline, part of Maui’s Marine Debris Rapid Response effort to remove large debris, document what washes ashore and build a record that supports long-term solutions.
