When life hands you lemons, make lemonade, and when life hands you derelict fishing nets, make electricity.
More than 7 tons of derelict fishing nets and fishing lines collected on Hawaii Island are being sent to Oahu to be converted into energy for the City and County of Honolulu, thanks to ongoing cleanup efforts by the nonprofit Hawaii Wildlife Fund.
The Nets-to-Energy program is a partnership under the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Matson Navigation provides containers and free shipping for nets to Oahu, where metal recycling company Schnitzer Steel cuts the material into smaller pieces to be burned at the Covanta H-Power Plant in Kapolei.
On Hawaii Island, netting is collected by Hawaii Wildlife Fund. The Surfrider Foundation organizes the program on Kauai.
Hawaii was the first state in the country to establish a program for converting marine debris into electricity.
The Nets-to-Energy program began on Hawaii Island in 2005. Since then, Hawaii Wildlife Fund has filled nine 40-foot containers.
On Saturday, volunteers and staffers loaded 15,000 pounds of net and line into a 10th container, with help from a tractor donated by JD Services. The last shipment off-island was in November 2015.
“It’s about 16 months worth of us going down and picking up anywhere from 500 pounds to 2,500 pounds in one run,” said Megan Lamson, Hawaii Island program director for Hawaii Wildlife Fund.
In between container shipments, nets are stored at the Naalehu transfer station.
Most nets are pulled off the Ka‘u coast during the Hawaii Wildlife Fund cleanups. Because of ocean currents, Kamilo Point is one of the most debris-laden beaches in the state.
Seven bundles also were pulled out of the ocean by West Hawaii boaters.
“Prior to (2005), the nets we collected … were going to the landfill,” Lamson said.
At the first Hawaii Wildlife Fund cleanup in 2003, she said, more than 75,000 pounds of nets were hauled off the beach.
There are no trash incineration facilities on Hawaii Island, although a waste-to-energy program came close to being established in 2015. Hawaii Wildlife Fund is not in favor of establishing one here, Lamson said, but having an off-island option is better than the landfill.
It’s unclear from where the nets are washing ashore or what their home fishery is.
“Before the (Nets-to-Energy) program, NOAA had folks up in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands trying to do identification work,” Lamson said. “It’s very challenging and time consuming.”
“A lot of them are these legacy trawl nets that for sure aren’t coming from Hawaii,” she said. “A lot of the fisheries aren’t even in existence anymore.”
The nets, however, continue to drift in the ocean, presenting an entanglement hazard for wildlife.
Lamson said filling a new container was satisfying, but “it’s just a matter of time — we’ll go back down, and there’ll be more.”
The next Hawaii Wildlife Fund beach cleanup is slated for Saturday, April 22 (Earth Day). Visit www.wildhawaii.org for more information.
Email Ivy Ashe at iashe@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
