Hawaii’s Giant Monster Net of Trash Tracked with GPS

The ocean is not being contaminated these days with just oil. Recently, an 11.5 ton net was found in the Pacific Ocean close to Hawaii and dragged out.  This proves the continuing ‘War on Trash’ is even more important than what was thought previously.

The ‘monster net’ was originally found in 2013 in the depths of the Pacific Ocean and was thought of as a legend to the people who worked for the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National

Monument in Hawaii. The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration or NOAA was the first to sight it on the edge of Hawaii’s Pearl and Hermes Atoll on a coral reef.

National Geographic reported that different sections of the net were caught on the ocean floor. A large tree twined in its mass.  Also, a sea turtle was injured and trapped in its folds.

What Makes the Net Dangerous?

The net could not be moved by divers alone. They had to return to the inland and go back with a team of researchers a few days later to examine the damage caused by the monster net. In these three days, three coral-reef sharks were killed by the net which makes it a much more deadly situation that what was thought previously.

A GPS tracker was attached to the large net by the research team. They then returned inland to set up a plan to excavate the net. However, only a few weeks later, the GPS tracking device was shredded by the net which dodged surveillance of teams of ocean cleanup. Because of this, those working in ocean cleanup began viewing the net as a legend.

Even though the net escaped capture for a long time, that did not slow activists and researchers down who were determined to clean the ocean up and surging the ‘War on Trash’ in the reefs and waters of Hawaii.

There were seventeen NOAA members in September who ventured on a thirty-three day cleanup around the coral reefs of Hawaii in the ocean. Although the ‘monster net’ was their primary mission, they also kept a look out for anything else that could lead them to find the monstrous danger.

Within four days of their mission, the net was spotted by NOAA members, shocking them with its appearance. The net was 8ft wide and 30ft long. There was so much trash captured in it that it was sticking out a foot over the water line. Volunteers and researchers took three days to pull this large net out of the ocean. They are now determining the destruction done to the wildlife and reef of the area.

This isn’t the only cleanup that led to horrendous findings of litter and trash in the coral reefs that surround Hawaii.  It certainly will not be the last either.  The cleanups are not enough; the hazards have to be stopped at the source to totally win the ‘War against Trash’.

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