RESPONSIBLE MARINE CLEANUP
GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM
Nick Foth maneuvered a fishing net into a roll-off trash bin yesterday during ceremonies at Pier 38 that marked the dedication of a program to dispose of derelict fishing nets collected by fishermen.
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Net Gains
A new program eases disposal of derelict fishing gear found at sea
Longline boat captain Leland Oldenburg gladly provided the first wad of derelict fishing gear dumped into a new marine debris collection bin at Pier 38 yesterday.
Not long ago, that very mass of green cargo netting had been wrapped around his fishing boat Sea Hunt's propeller and put a fishing trip to a sudden stop, Oldenburg said.
He had to don scuba gear and go underwater to cut the net off before the boat could continue. "It took about an hour," he said.
At a ceremony yesterday to announce the new Honolulu Derelict Net Recycling Program, Oldenburg and others said having a dedicated bin for marine debris shows the commitment of government and private entities to taking better care of the ocean.
Floating marine debris at sea can make serious trouble for boats and for marine mammals like Hawaiian monk seals and whales, who can get trapped in it and drown.
The Hawaiian Archipelago snags a significant amount of marine debris. For example, more than 540 tons of nets and rope have been removed in cleanups of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands since 1996.
Kris McElwee, with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's marine debris program, said recycling the nets is an important step "to protect our nation's natural resources from the impacts of marine debris."
Other ongoing NOAA marine debris initiatives include removing nets from the Northwestern Islands and from the Big Island's southern shoreline.
For years, longline fishermen -- who do not use nets themselves -- have brought back debris nets they found floating at sea and disposed of them on land, said Scott Barrows, executive director of the Hawaii Longline Association.
But the unwieldy, wet, heavy gobs of net -- averaging about 300 pounds each -- were not welcome in regular trash receptacles. So, until now, fishermen who brought the nets back to port dumped them alongside trash bins.
Then refuse crews struggled to get the net to Schnitzer Steel Hawaii Corp. (formerly Hawaii Metal Recycling), where the company used metal-cutting equipment to chop them into bits, at no charge, said Jim Banigan, Schnitzer general manager for Hawaii.
Once chopped up in short enough pieces, the nets can be burned at the city's HPOWER waste-to-energy plant.
The bin is on the same pier as United Fishing Agency, the state's only wholesale fish auction, and Pacific Ocean Producers, a major supplier for the commercial fishing fleet.
One container would hold about five tons of net, Banigan said, whose company will donate the machinery and labor to pick up the debris, chop it into pieces and deliver it to HPOWER for fuel.
Each 2,000 tons of net can generate 1 megawatt of electricity, said Rodney Smith, of Covanta, the company that operates HPOWER.
"It's fitting that Hawaii is the first state to have a project like this, because Hawaii is at the forefront of trying to deal with marine debris," said Kitty Simonds, executive director of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council.