The Nature Conservancy’s Hawaii Chapter and its partners removed more than 46,000 pounds of marine debris from Molokai’s remote beaches at Mo’omomi in the last quarter of 2020.

“We started cleaning the beaches more than 20 years ago,” said Wailana Moses, Molokai field coordinator for The Nature Conservancy. “This year, we were still able to remove a lot of marine debris in spite of COVID-19, thanks to our partners and community pulling together and doing the work in a safe, physically distant way.”

The conservancy’s Mo’omomi Preserve and its adjoining beaches are home to rich coastal marine life, culturally important fishing grounds and some of the most important green sea turtle nesting habitats in the main Hawaiian Islands. Mo’omomi’s beaches are also a “hot spot” where thousands of pounds of marine debris, such as commercial fishing nets and plastic waste, wash in from all over the Pacific every year.

The most recent beach cleanup yielded 133 bags of marine debris, filling two 40-foot shipping containers. Over the last five years, cleanups filled eight shipping containers, totaling about 368,000 pounds.

“Cleaning up marine debris is only a small part of what we do on Molokai to steward our lands and waters so that both people and nature can thrive,” said Ulalia Woodside, executive director of The Nature Conservancy’s Hawaii Chapter. “The marine debris problem is getting worse, so we’re grateful to have support from the community and partners on both cleanup and, perhaps more importantly, raising awareness on how to change our behavior so we all generate less waste.”