Expedition hauls 47.2 tons of ghost nets, plastics out of remote Hawaii atolls | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Expedition hauls 47.2 tons of ghost nets, plastics out of remote Hawaii atolls

MATTHEW CHAUVIN, PAPAHĀNAUMOKUĀKEA MARINE DEBRIS PROJECT VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS
A juvenile Hawaiian monk seal rested on top of a pile of ghost nets, April 5, on the windward shores of Laysan Island in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. A crew returned from the remote Northwestern Hawaiian Islands with a boatload of marine plastic and abandoned fishing nets that threaten to entangle endangered Hawaiian monk seals and other marine animals on the tiny, uninhabited beaches stretching for more than 1,300 miles north of Honolulu.

A team of scientists has hauled another 47.2 tons of marine debris from Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument following a 24-day expedition, just in time for Earth Day.