Cleanup at Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument

Papahanaumokuakea Marine Debris Project / Contributed photo

The team comes home aboard the M/V Imua with shipping containers full of debris.

Papahanaumokuakea Marine Debris Project / Contributed photo

The cleanup team showing agency partners and government project supporters

Papahanaumokuakea Marine Debris Project / Contributed photo

Photo of the cleanup team, comprised of 8 PMDP staff and 3 USFWS staff, sitting on top of 82,600 of debris removed over the course of the cleanup project. Photo: Dan Link, USFWS

Papahanaumokuakea Marine Debris Project / Contributed photo

PMDP employee Jan-Willem Staman and USFWS volunteer Jon Scheiderman bag a bundle of derelict fishing gear for removal. Fishing gear is an entanglement hazard for Hawaiian monk seals and green sea turtles at Lalo.

Papahanaumokuakea Marine Debris Project / Contributed photo

Piles of wood debris are processed for removal.

Papahanaumokuakea Marine Debris Project / Contributed photo

Derelict fishing net on the south beach of Tern Island.

Papahanaumokuakea Marine Debris Project / Contributed photo

An ‘Iwa bird soars over a clean swath of Tern Island on the last day of the cleanup.

HONOLULU — Over 82,600 pounds of marine debris and trash were removed during a 16-day cleanup project at Lalo (French Frigate Shoals) within Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument. Part of the Hawaiian Islands National Wildlife Refuge, Lalo is a remote atoll over 550 miles from Honolulu that provides essential habitat for nesting seabirds, threatened honu (green sea turtles), and endangered ‘ilio-holo-i-ka-uaua (Hawaiian monk seals).

0 Comments