Crew members from a Honolulu-based Coast Guard cutter removed four tons of nets and debris from Kure Atoll in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands last week, Coast Guard officials said yesterday.

As part of a routine debris recovery trip, crew members aboard the cutter Kukui used two small boats to transport 36 loads from the atoll to the cutter over three days.

The trash had accumulated over a two-year period, officials said.

Federal and state officers rescued seven Hawaiian monk seals, five black-footed albatrosses and a tern from entanglement in just the past two years alone, said Cynthia Vanderlip, manager of the state of Hawaii's Kure Atoll Wildlife Sanctuary. The Coast Guard's removal of the nets and debris will help prevent such entanglements, she added.

“;The impact is devastating,”; Vanderlip said in a press release. “;This is a serious problem that cannot be solved until the responsible parties are held accountable, but in the meantime, we'll continue to do what we can.”;

The Kukui, a 225-foot Juniper-class buoy tender, transported state Department of Land and Natural Resources personnel and Coast Guard engineers from Midway Atoll to continue an ongoing environmental assessment of Kure as part of the trip. The crew also serviced 19 aids to navigation - buoys, day boards and other signs - to help mariners, officials said.