Photo: Roy Hollowell

The sailing auxiliary cargo ship Kwai arrived in Hawaii recently.  The ship usually sails a regular route carrying cargo and passengers between Hawaii and the islands of Kiritimati (Christmas Island), Tabuaeran (Fanning) and Teraina, (Washington Island) as well as the Northern Cook Islands of Penrhyn, Rakahanga, Manihiki, Nassau, and Pukapuka.  The most recent voyage was different, however, and the cargo most unusual. On her arrival in Honolulu, the Kwai unloaded more than 40 tons of “ghost nets” collected from the Pacific Garbage Patch. Ghost nets are abandoned fishing gear which continues to drift catching and killing thousands of marine animals.

A study last year published in Nature suggests that the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is growing “exponentially” and now spans roughly 617,763 square miles (1.6 million square km), or about three times the size of France.  Remarkably, roughly half of the floating debris in the garbage patch is abandoned fishing nets and related cordage.

To locate the drifting ghost nets, the crew of the Kwai used GPS receivers which had been attached to the nets by passing mariners.  The Ocean Voyages Institute, founded by Mary Crowley, has been handing out special GPS transponders to mariners, asking them to attach it to any abandoned fishing gear they find.

Hawaii News Now quotes Crowley saying, “The problem with plastic is it just lasts forever. So these nets continue killing marine life until they’re taken out of the ocean.  They gather dolphins and turtles and fish. They’re killing machines. From our experience, where we would find one net, we would find more nets.”

Crowley says it’s her mission to make sure that none of the trash removed from the ocean ends up in a garbage dump. The majority of all the nets and debris that were collected will be taken to H-Power and turned into electricity.

“It will all be re-purposed to make sure none of it goes back into the ocean,” said Crowley.

The SV Kwai has returned to her normal trading voyages. The team behind SV Kwai includes Captain Brad Ives, the president of Island Ventures Ltd and the Senior Captain of the SV Kwai. He has 25 years experience in traditional sailing and commercial seafaring. KWAI is his third sailing ship conversion project. April Fountain or Mama Kwai is Brad’s wife and manages the office in Hawaii as well as being the Ships Agent. She brings many years of successful business experience in both her own and other businesses. 

Thanks to Virginia Jones for contributing to this post.