Turtle Bay Beach Cleanup: Report

Ahhh finally a volunteer day that allowed for ample sleep in time on a Saturday! We started the day around 10:30 meeting up at Turtle Bay as far North as you can go on Oahu. The resort area was massive but luckily there were blue flags abound and signs so it was easy to find the meetup spot. We all parked and made our way over to the tent and Rosie was able to pick up her awesome trucker hat with the Sustainable Coastlines logo for being a sponsor. It’s her favorite agency to support because she so loves the work that they do and is proud to be a part of it.

The following attendees participated and we had TWO first timers, Sebastien and Jenly!!!

• Rika
• Jenly
• Sebastien
• Deana
• Me!

As we were waiting, we were told to hop on a school bus to head to the cleanup destination, a beach far out past the golf course where we had never been. We got to talk to some interesting people on the bus who were there for the Wanderlust festival and it was nice to see that so many of them were tourists helping us clean.

As we stepped off the bus I think all of our jaws dropped when we first saw the beach. There was more microplastic here than we had EVER seen. The beach was literally covered so we all jumped in and got to work. Rosie immediately headed as far down as she could go so she could make her way back… her first find was a giant knife. Later in the day she found THREE pairs of underwear… all in the same location but different sizes. Very strange.

We worked for 2 hours and loaded up truck after truck with all the garbage of the day. We had a fantastic time working with our wonderful HIC people. HIC can’t thank everyone enough who participates in these work days.

Afterwards, we all decided to hit up a shrimp truck and hit up Giovannis. Can’t wait till the next one!!

Hour Count:

• 10 hours cleanup
• 3 hours coordination and planning