Crews clearing discarded nets from Kaua'i's east shore
By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser KauaÎi Bureau
LIHU'E, Kaua'i — Crews working from land and sea are hauling tons of old fishing nets off Kaua'i's eastern shoreline.
Jan TenBruggencate • The Honolulu Advertiser
The five-day project, scheduled to run through the weekend, is financed by Tesoro Hawai'i as part of the company's compensation for environmental damage caused by its August 1998 oil spill.
A massive tangle of ropes and nets is stored at Nawiliwili Harbor, after being removed from the Ninini-Ahukini coastline as part of a five-day cleanup of nets along the eastern shore of Kaua'i. Tesoro Hawai'i is providing money for the cleanup to compensate for a 1998 oil spill that fouled Kaua'i shores.
A workboat with divers is collecting submerged nets from reefs and nets that have washed onto rocky shores that are inaccessible by equipment on land.
National Marine Fisheries Service scientist John Naughton said divers are carried through the surf by a personal watercraft. The divers free the nets and attach a cable to enable the workboat to haul them away from the shore.
Another crew using a crane and trucks is running along the coast, hauling nets from the upper beach areas.
Wednesday's first-day haul filled a large shipping container at Nawiliwili Harbor. The nets had not been weighed, but appeared to total several tons.
Officials of the National Marine Fisheries Service, the state Department of Health and the state Division of Aquatic Resources are working with the Clean Islands Council and others on the project.
During Thursday's land operations along the rocky coastline between Ahukini and Ninini, crews hauled out giant tangles of cargo nets, monofilament gillnets, sections of trawl webbing, and ropes and cables of many colors and sizes.
The 1998 spill from Tesoro's Barbers Point offshore mooring released nearly 5,000 gallons of oil, much of which came ashore on Kaua'i. Dozens of seabirds were oiled and many died. Other forms of coastal life also were affected.
