Hawaiian Shores are "tied up"
"Bill Gilmartin with the Hawaii Wildlife Fund estimated the fund has recovered more than 231 tons of garbage from the ocean in the past 15 years. Eight million tons of plastic are estimated to be dumped in the world’s oceans every year."
On the south end of the island of Hawai’i, in Hawaii County, Hawaii, lies Kamilo Point, a rocky shoreline that is also known as “Plastic Beach.” This beach recently encountered a new cause of dismay, as a tangled mass of rope, weighing in at over 40 tons, washed ashore. What’s worse, this is the eighth mass of grieving size to wash onto the shores of Hawaii. Large amounts of trash and debris are washed ashore here constantly due to its location in relation to ocean currents and nearby gyres. The Kaiwi Channel, between the islands Oahu and Molokai, for example, is currently known for a 2-mile long garbage patch of its own, and it is speculated that the bulks of netting may be related to that, debris breaking off from this larger “trash island” floating off the coast. While there are many concerns about this, the most immediate concern is the lives that rope masses of this size could threaten. Ropes can easily damage boats, which could lead to bigger problems for people at sea, and sea animals could very easily be trapped and/or strangled. The Hawaiian Islands are just one of the many places that large amounts of trash and debris are washing ashore are exponential rate, especially off the pacific, where debris is constantly breaking off the North Pacific Gyre.
Reflect
While ropes washing ashore may not seem to be as big of a deal as glaciers melting, they are quickly becoming a growing threat. These ropes are, for one, a part of something bigger. This mound of ropes was the eighth mound of trash like this to wash ashore THIS MONTH. EIGHTH! On such a small island, the idea that trash is just simply sweeping the shorelines is a tough concept to grasp. Also, the net of ropes was not the only trash to wash ashore, but simply the hardest to remove to to the obvious entanglement that ropes and nets involve, thus bringing me to the next issue. Nets are extremely hard to untangle, even for us. How are animals and sea creatures supposed to survive in an ocean that becoming more populated with trash and debris than living creatures. Any fish that gets caught in netting like that is surely not to have a bright future. Is this the beginning of marine live’s ends? Lastly, any microorganisms that can survive and latch onto this netting are now easily transported to new environments on these nets, exposing species to the unknown. This is a balance that ought not be reckoned with.