Officials, Nonprofits Seek Ghost Net Drifting Along ʻAuʻau Channel

Molokini. PC: Redline.

A ghost net that was located about a mile west of Molokini in December has not been recovered yet.

Oriana Kalama, a member of Ocean Defender Hawaiʻi, reported the net on Dec. 29 through social media.

Several local nonprofits began planning efforts to capture the net and contacted the Department of Land and Natural Resources, Coast Guard, and Harbor Masters.

However, organizers say the ghost net remains drifting along the ʻAuʻau channel.

Members of ocean protection nonprofits say blustery winds and turbulent seas have challenged recovery efforts.

“The net is more likely to have moved west,” Nikolai Maximenko of the International Pacific Research Center said in a press release.

“The net is more likely still somewhere between Maui, Kahoʻolawe, Lānaʻi, and Molokaʻi, possibliy itʻs already stuck on one of these islands.”

Organizers from the Ocean Voyages Institute say the net was described as 50 feet long and 70 feet wide with a yellow floater bucket.

Anyone with information on the net is asked to contact Mary Crowley of the Ocean Voyages Institute at mary@oceanvoyagesinstitute.org.