LIHU‘E — One child-size snow ski. Bowling balls, boats, bed springs, Jet Skis and shipping container panels. Countless international commercial fishing nets.
The Surfrider Foundation of Kaua‘i’s Net Patrol has removed all these and more from local beaches since its first cleanup in late March 2007.
Now, in light of the Net Patrol’s recent 15th anniversary, its volunteer members are looking back on their accomplishments.
The group hauls away 85,500 pounds of debris per year on average, according to data collected since 2013.
But it all started with a single net on Nukoli‘i Beach in Kapa‘a, according to Net Patrol Co-chair Barbara Wiedner.
The net had stymied Surfrider volunteers cleaning the area, as they lacked the tools needed to cut up the debris into manageable pieces. An onlooker called for a group to form and return with proper equipment.
“And we showed up,” Wiedner told The Garden Island.
Wiedner was joined by three other Surfrider members and four high school students who happened by while on spring break.
“In an hour, we were able to remove between 250 and 400 pounds of net and pull it all the way up by the bathrooms there at Nukoli‘i, and that was our first Net Patrol,” Wiedner said.
“That was when we came up with the idea that we needed a hotline community members could call … We just did it as needed. We were probably going out two to three times a month (to pick up nets).”
Then a man named Scott McCubbins came along in 2013.
After participating in a beach cleanup, McCubbins told Wiedner he’d like to remove nets on a weekly basis, and the Net Patrol shifted into high gear. It now meets every Wednesday in addition to less-frequent Saturday and emergency cleanups.
“He’s the one who makes it go … We follow him and he’s a great leader,” said regular volunteer Scott Lever.
“It’s a way for me to go have a workout, interact with friends and do a little bit of good as well,” Lever continued.
Trygve Larsen is another longtime member. He and his wife Helene joined the Net Patrol soon after moving to Kaua‘i in late 2015.
Like Lever, Larsen enjoys volunteering with like-minded people on the beaches he finds so beautiful. But, sometimes, the work can bring him down.
“I’ve been doing it long enough now that I’ve cleaned the same beaches multiple times,” Larsen said. “You come back and it’s filthy and depressing. It’s like a whack-a-mole type of thing.”
The group’s core of 12 to 16 regular participants is often bolstered by visitors to Kaua‘i.
Church groups, children’s groups, Sierra Club members and families on vacation often pitch in, according to McCubbins, who co-chairs the Net Patrol with Wiedner.
“It’s simple — to protect our sea life, that’s the main reason why we do it,” McCubbins said, gesturing to a printed photograph of a sea turtle entangled in a commercial fishing net.
Such nets are the killers of the ocean, according to Wiedner, who claims one in four whales bears entanglement scars.
The Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary website estimates entanglements kill hundreds of thousands of whales each year worldwide.
Wiedner and McCubbins say the large nets are difficult to cut apart. (After experimenting with garden loppers, a blowtorch and bargain-bin cutlery, the two have found an $8 Swiss Army knife works best.)
The Net Patrol has also expanded to rely on relationships with partners including private land companies, the state Department of Land and Natural Resources Division of Forestry and Wildlife, and the nonprofit Hawai‘i Wildlife Fund.
Local business Jack Harter Helicopters is another collaborator. Company helicopters hoist debris-filled sacks from rocky coastlines during the Net Patrol’s annual Operation Airlift.
Fifteen years after it began, the Net Patrol shows no sign of slowing down.
“As as long as we live here, we’ll always try and be a part of it, and go as much as we can,” Larsen said. “I think that’ll always be a part of me … gotta just try and tidy up my little corner of the world.”
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Scott Yunker, reporter, can be reached at 245-0437 or syunker@thegardenisland.com.
