On Kauai’s windward shores, thousands of pounds of plastic pollution wash ashore every year – most from commercial fishing operations, with fishing nets being the main culprit. The tides bring in tangled masses of ropes and lines, many weighing over 1,000 pounds. We launched “Net Patrol” in 2007 in response to the growing problem of debris on outlying beaches and coastlines. Removing the net masses requires digging, cutting, dragging, and hauling. If left on the coastline, the ocean will wash them out again, where they can entangle fish, monk seals and turtles – or ensnare coral heads.

Launched in 2020 by the Surfrider Kaua'i Chapter, the North Pacific Eel Trap Project is an international, collaborative effort to develop options aimed at reducing the number of lost and discarded hagfish traps and thus their impact on Hawaiian Monk Seals. It may also serve as a replicable model for future efforts aimed at derelict fishing gear reduction.