Located halfway between California and Hawaii lies the Pacific Ocean's Great Garbage Patch. Double the size of Texas, it consists of -- you guessed it -- trash.

A natural phenomenon, The Garbage Patch is part of a system of currents called the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre. Its contents are caught in a swirling vortex, created by slack winds and sluggish currents.

This pollution is killing sea life, choking birds and fish, entangling seals and whales, as well as assaulting the Hawaiian Islands.

The island chain acts like a giant comb, straining floating trash onto its coral reefs, beaches and shorelines, including the Big Island's southern Waiohinu-Ka Lae coast. More than 50 tons of marine debris from domestic and foreign sources wash ashore annually in Hawaii, said Carey Morishige, Pacific Islands outreach coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Marine Debris Program. Morishige spoke Saturday evening about this deadly problem and what is now being done to address it. Seven residents attended the "Got Trash: Protecting Hawaii's Oceans From Marine Debris" lecture at the Outrigger Keauhou Beach Resort. Some suggested the poor attendance was reflective of the public's "out-of-sight, out-of-mind" view of marine debris.

"Marine debris is any man-made object discarded, disposed of, or abandoned that enters the coastal or marine environment," states NOAA's National Ocean Service. "It may enter directly when it is lost or dumped from a ship or indirectly when debris washes out to sea via rivers, streams and storm drains."

Since the onset of synthetic materials, such as plastics, marine debris has become a threat to wildlife, Morishige said. Oftentimes, floating bits of debris are often mistaken for food and ingested, leading to internal injury, dehydration and starvation, death.

Morishige has seen the remains of a foraging Laysan albatross from the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Its exposed belly filled with shiny bits and chunks of plastic among the bones and feathers. "It's heartbreaking," she said.


Rubbish also can wrap around fins, flippers and limbs of animals, causing drowning and amputation. In 2002, Morishige said a humpback whale was entangled in 22 different types of net, making it more susceptible to other threats like ship strikes.

"Some debris can kill for decades, especially since trash far outlives us," she said.

For instance, it takes 450 years for plastic bottles to decompose, 600 years for monofilament fishing line to degrade, 10 to 20 years for plastic bags to decay, one to five years for cigarette filters to break down, two months for an apple core to disintegrate and two to four weeks for a paper towel to deteriorate, according to the U.S. National Park Service Mote Marine Lab in Sarasota, Fla.

Marine debris has become a navigational hazard to fishing and recreational boats by entangling propellers and clogging cooling water intake valves. Repairing damaged boats is consuming and expensive. When a cargo ship -- traveling from California to Japan -- got its propeller stuck on an enormous ball of floating net, it took divers and specialist three days to remove it, Morishige said.

NOAA's Abandoned Vessel Program currently is working on how to better address incidents like this one and increase rapid response, Morishige said.

After all, giant balls of derelict net are often discovered in the ocean. During a helicopter survey of a whale entanglement, NOAA officials spotted 12 balls, about 30 feet in width, floating off the Kona coast, Morishige said.

On Dec. 22, the President Bush signed into law the Marine Debris Research, Prevention and Reduction Act, which provides $12 million annually in federal funding for the effort through 2010. Of that, NOAA will receive $10 million and $2 million goes to the Coast Guard.

Since 2005, NOAA has funded numerous projects to help prevent, reduce and mitigate marine debris.

The NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center Coral Ecosystem Division is surveying and removing marine debris from the main Hawaiian Islands.

Flying up to five hours daily from February through May 2006, the science center obtained global positioning system data, photos and other information to map the distribution and abundance of the debris. It noted 771 marine debris sites, which are comprised of about 250,000 pounds of trash, Morishige said.

Most of the sites were in the windward coastlines, except the Big Island. Researchers believe currents and micro eddies sweep pollution down the West Hawaii coast and wrap it around South Point, Morishige said.

Last year, NOAA and the Hawaii Wildlife Funds held five cleanups in an effort to make the Waiohinu-Ka Lae coastline cleaner and safer. Each cleanup tackled a different section over four months.

The ending result was "phenomenal," Morishige said. Hundreds of volunteers filled about 900 garbage bags, collected 84,922 items and removed about 41 tons of marine debris from this coastline. Of that, almost 36 tons were derelict fishing net, enough to fill three 40-foot Matson Navigation Company containers.

The collected net was placed in a container and shipped by Matson to Covanta Energy's H-Power facility in Honolulu, where they are burned to create electricity. About 100 tons of derelict net creates enough electricity to power 43 homes a year, Morishige said.

Despite the progress made last year, the marine debris has returned to the Waiohinu-Ka Lae coastline and another series of cleanups will be organized, Morishige said.

"NOAA is working toward source identification, but until then, removal is just a Band-Aid, something we can do now to help mitigate the problem," she said.

To increase awareness about marine debris, NOAA is creating a public display at the Mokupapapa Discovery Center in Hilo, which is tentatively set to debut Jan. 27. It will feature actual marine debris items collected from various locations on the Big Island as well as results from the NOAA's aerial survey project.

For more information about marine debris, contact Carey Morishige of the NOAA Marine Debris Program at 397-2651, ext. 256, or e-mail her at Carey.Morishige@noaa.gov. Also, visit www.marinedebris.noaa.gov.