By ODA Hawai’i Island Chapter Leader Sarah Milisen
For the majority of our marine debris removal activities, Ocean Defenders Alliance (ODA) performs underwater cleanups, however, we go where we see a need – boots on the ground or fins on the water – guerilla cleanup style.
ODA has been growing fast and furiously on the Big Island of Hawai'i for a few years now, and for the last couple of years, I’ve been the point of contact here for reports of underwater debris sites, derelict tires, washed up nets, and any other types of debris that need cleaning. It's my job to then assemble, organize, and facilitate the proper channels to get our volunteers' boots on the ground or fins in the water to make our island a cleaner place.
The ODA Big Island dive crew ready to go out to sea to do an underwater cleanup.
"Up" for any kind of cleanup, the ODA volunteers also perform harbor cleanups regularly!
Pololū Valley has been an ongoing project since April 2024, when Mark England and Marjorie Zensen were hiking and came upon a large pile of derelict fishing gear washed up net along the shoreline – mostly nets and ropes. . They were able to get 50 pounds off the beach.
After that, we all agreed ODA could not let abandoned fishing gear remain at a site we started working on and committed that we had to go back as many times as needed to clear all the ghost gear out of the site. ODA has since organized an "official" cleanup with the help and collaboration of Protect Pololū, (a community organization focused on protecting Pololū through education and stewardship).
We did the first organized cleanup in June 2024 to "get the net." Ha! It was BURIED, deep in the rocks along the shoreline wall. The eight of us got what we could, with EPIC volunteer Pippa Swannell making THREE hikes with debris up and down again to help haul. Over 700 pounds was removed. BUT – another cleanup was needed.
In August, Mark, Marjorie, and their daughter Logan headed down for a mini cleanup, and were even helped by hikers passing by. They got another 100 pounds out, but again, it was impossible to get all the debris.
It was really on my mind a lot now! I wanted this FINISHED (I absolutely hate incline hiking), so a bigger crew was needed for another cleanup. And I was hopeful, on the 8th of December, with almost 20 volunteers, we could tackle this yet.
Getting into the valley that day – I was destroyed – a BIGGER, muddier, wetter net had appeared and was sitting in the iconic Pololū Valley River. ARE YOU KIDDING ME! We split up and tackled what we could in the three-plus hours of hiking, cutting and hauling.
We pulled up 2,250pounds of debris!!!
BUT we still had 20% of this old [original] net still buried, and 80% of the huge wet monster net in the river. So, as ODA events tend to happen, our volunteer attendees seem to DOUBLE every time we do a repeat event, so we had nearly THIRTY volunteers at this most recent cleanup! AND ANOTHER DANG NET WASHED ASHORE THIS WEEK, for THREE nets to tackle on this mission.
Not only did we have 30 willing volunteers to cut, hike, haul and carry these smelly, wet and heavy nets up the hill – but we had two trucks, a van, a 2-ton come-along, and a chain fall to help get the net out of the river – a dangerous spot where net can flow back out to sea with heavy rains. This is getting serious. We mean business. Guerilla warfare on these nets, in Pololū Valley.
The community comes together – and this day brought this weathered, beaten and defeated girl to tears to watch all these hard, sweating, determined volunteers toiling away, cutting, pulling, pushing, loading, hauling, hiking, sweating, climbing, and REPEATING - again and again. I have been working with marine debris for the last 10 years: pulling up nets in the most remote, uninhabited archipelagos in the world, and I have never seen this level of selfless dedication and hard work than what I saw January 5th in Pololū Valley.
Sara gives a briefing to the volunteers.
Here's a list of the volunteers, some of whom I can’t recall their last names (if you see your first name listed please email us to tell us your full name so we can thank you properly!): Juan Chacin, Erin Clement, Kay Cooper, Carl Cooper, Josh Cooper, Mark England, Ann Gill, John Gill, Roger Gill, Dan Gordon, Todd Hackett, Maura Hennessy, Joyce Lee, Jack Mead, Jeff Milisen, Joyce Rojanavongse, Pippa Swannell, Brian Sward, Ben Thomas, Tony White, Marjorie Zensen, Adrian, Amy, Bayli, Becky, Daniel, Jennica, Kayla, Nick, and Tait!
The new net spotted this last week by Ben and Joyce (lovely ODA volunteers) was packaged up and sent on its way with rapidity. The wet net immediately broke our new 2-ton comealong, so the chain fall was doing magical work, slowly pulling it up and out of the riverbed – so I tasked 20 or so volunteers to hit the old net while the chainfall was laboriously, inch by inch, pulling in the wet net, as 10 or so volunteers were knee deep in silty mudwater, cutting away debris piece by piece.
I got word after an hour that the old net was 100% removed!!! Here are photos of that location:
I was sad to not be able to see the final clean beach we have worked so hard on since June, but this wet bugger needed full attention – so on we kept cutting, pulling and pushing to get it out.
Every chunk of net removed got a carnal scream of joy and anger. Inch by inch it became free of the riverbed. And square-foot by square-foot we chunked off the monster net, gutting and filleting like a huge animal, cut and dressed in the field. Packaging up in backpacks and hauled up the 500-foot valley incline.
By 1pm, we were all delirious with muscle exhaustion, hunger, severe dehydration, and depleted energy.
I promise you, Brian wasn't the only one who had to lay down!
After coming back up, myself empty-handed save for tools and relief supplies, I was SHOCKED to see the haul these guys had managed to get up the hill.
ODA Big Island Crew with Catch of the Day!
I am in AWE of these volunteers who slave away on their day off to make the island cleaner, give back to the community, and endure some screaming sore muscles for the next couple days. There is about 600-800 pounds that we'll have to come back and get, but maybe some dedicated hikers will pick away at it before we get there!
These people GIVE their day, their energy, their resources, their bodies, their kindness, determination, strength, and whatever else is inside themselves, for an incredible act of kindness that blows my mind. Our thirty volunteers hauled up an insane 4,200 pounds of wet marine debris net, in just a few hours.
Thank you to all the volunteers, on behalf of ODA and all of our supporters, for the commendable act of pulling, cutting, bagging, hauling, hiking, and sweating to help make a difference in our community beautifying our gorgeous environment and making the waters safer for marine wildlife.
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