The Maui News – A marine debris field of nets, crates, a long pole and other items that may be about 2.3 miles long was tracked Tuesday night in the Kaiwi Channel between Molokai and Oahu, the state Department of Land and Natural Resources said Wednesday.

The debris field was about 13.8 miles south of Oahu on Tuesday night and being tracked by federal and state officials. It was first reported by a fisherman Saturday about 9.5 miles south of Koko Crater and 3.5 miles from the Penguin Banks, the department said.

Among the debris were large amounts of nets, ropes, buoys, crates and drums, the fisherman said.

The initial sighting was confirmed by other sources, including the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Oliver Berry, which passed through the debris field Tuesday night.

“Based on our initial observations, this appears to be more of a weed line than a debris field, containing a 40- to 60-foot wooden pole with marine growth, plastic bags, weeds and other assorted debris;” said Lt. Cmdr. John Titchen, who is leading the Coast Guard’s effort.

“Nonetheless, boaters need to be aware of it and avoid it,” he said.

Nikolai Maximenko and his team at the University of Hawaii at Manoa’s International Pacific Research Center, part of the School of Ocean & Earth Science & Technology, was tracking the drifting of the debris field, which appeared to be on a northeastern trajectory away from land.

“As the currents in Hawaii are complex and dynamic, we don’t have a good understanding of their effect on debris of this scale,” Maximenko said. “We are working with the Coast Guard to add a tracker to the debris to gather more data to aid our modeling.”

He said it is possible that some of the debris will make landfall on the western shores of Molokai. DLNR staff will be conducting a shoreline survey to locate and address any debris found there, the news release said.

A decision on whether to try to collect the debris depends on its movement over the next few days, the DLNR said. If it does make landfall, DLNR and its partners will work to remove it. If it remains in the ocean and appears to be coming close to land it would likely take a large vessel with heavy-lift crane capability to capture it.

Another concern is the concentration of marine life in and around the debris, which will have to be considered when conducting debris removal, said the DLNR.

The Coast Guard has issued a broadcast notice to mariners identifying hazards to navigation that vessels in the area may encounter and urged caution. These types of fields can create entanglement and fouling hazards, said Titchen.

Recreational fishermen and commercial shipping companies have been alerted to report sightings and to gather data on the debris field, DLNR said.

UH researchers, the Coast Guard, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Marine Debris Program and National Marine Fisheries Service, and the DLNR’s Chairwoman Suzanne Case’s office and Division of Boating and Ocean Recreation are partnering to address the debris field.

“We often see similar debris accumulation along shear lines when conditions are just right,” said Mark Manuel, the Pacific Island Marine Debris regional coordinator for NOAA’s National Ocean Service. “Most often the accumulations disperse on their own.

“This does remind us to not contribute to the global problem of marine debris by recycling and disposing of rubbish in the proper manner.”

In addition to navigational hazards for ocean vessels, debris fields can cause significant damage to coral reefs and sometimes contain aquatic invasive species that can colonize an area and spread very rapidly.