By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Columnist

The stuff that washes ashore is just amazing — and there are beaches in the Islands that capture more than their share.

Teams of volunteers recently hit two of those beaches and hauled away tons of man-made debris from Ka'alu'alu Bay, near Wai'ohinu on the Big Island, and Kanapou on Kaho'olawe. Crews took about 40 tons of debris off Ka'alu'alu and four tons off Kanapou.

Carey Morishige, a University of Hawai'i graduate student under contract to the state Division of Aquatic Resources, said both beaches seem to collect marine debris. The cleanups were done under a federal grant to the state's Coastal Zone Management Program.

Ka'alu'alu lies just up the east coast of the Big Island from Ka Lae, the state's southernmost spot. Morishige said 150 volunteers spent two days there collecting debris.

Kanapou faces Molokini. Twenty-five volunteers arrived there by boat and helicopter and worked a day on the cleanup. The debris was taken out by helicopter.

Morishige said she was interested to read that ocean conservationist Jean-Michel Cousteau had expressed concern about the amount of trash he saw on the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. The results of the Big Island and Kaho'olawe cleanups should "bring home the fact that marine debris is a huge problem, not only in our Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, but also here in our own back yard," she said.

Some of the most common debris on Kaho'olawe included large plastic bottles (695), small plastic bottles (440), black tubing (266 pieces), lengths of rope (269), floats of various kinds (804), footwear (345 slippers, shoes and fins) and parts of fisheries traps (100, mostly plastic cones).

A survey of the material showed 75 percent was plastic, 7 percent rubber, 6 percent glass, 6 percent rope, 5 percent styrofoam and 1 percent metal (mainly aerosol and other cans).

A number of pieces of net were found, but most were buried in the sand and could not be pulled free.

Volunteers at Ka'alu'alu found similar items, plus such things as batteries, car parts, tires and a computer monitor.

Morishige said it took 51 truck loads to haul out some 900 bags of trash. The debris remains at a staging area off the beach awaiting transport to a landfill. Two tractors on the beach helped load the biggest bundles of net and line.

One bonus for a couple of volunteers: Two baseball-size, green glass fishing floats were found in the Big Island cleanup. They went home with the finders, Morishige said.

Jan TenBruggencate is The Advertiser's Kaua'i bureau chief and science and environment writer. Contact him at (808) 245-3074 or jant@honoluluadvertiser.com.