Pacific Whale Foundation expands Adopt A Beach Program

The Pacific Whale Foundation is expanding its Adopt a Beach program to residents of Maui County, with a focus on Maui’s North Shore and the islands of Lana’i and Moloka‘i.

The goal is to add five to 10 beaches to the current program by December 2023. The ultimate goal is to enroll enough volunteers to adopt every accessible beach in Maui County by the end of next year. 

The foundation plans to accomplish this goal by working with additional Neighbor Island partners involved in similar cleanups to compare and log data.

Launched in 2021, Adopt a Beach requires participants to commit monthly to clean up a selected beach for a minimum of one year with reusable supplies — cleanup bags, gloves, data sheets and markers — provided by the foundation.

The program was created in response to the overwhelming debris collected through the foundation’s ongoing Coastal Marine Debris Monitoring Program, which last year contributed 67,012 total waste items to the foundation’s marine debris database.  

The foundation has identified marine plastic pollution, which accounts for 76% of recorded waste, as one of five major threats impacting whales, dolphins and other marine animals worldwide.

Determining the source of this debris allows the organization to target its focus locally, nationally and/or globally, depending on results collected. Additional volunteers in more locations translates to more consistent data and improved geographic marine-debris information.

With employee engagement programs reimplementing in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic shutdown, Adopt a Beach is also an opportunity for businesses and other organizations to assist foundation campaigns that inform and influence policies to reduce marine debris.

With every accessible beach in Maui County assigned at least one volunteer by December 2023, the data collected will be used to identify which beaches collect the most debris so they can be prioritized for community cleanup days.

Additional measures include volunteer flexibility regarding the time frame for monthly cleanups; quarterly contests for regular contributors; and a complimentary excursion with PacWhale Eco-Adventures — the foundation’s solely owned social enterprise — per 12 months of submitted data sheets.

Quarterly prizes may include vouchers for the PacWhale Ocean Store, where winners can purchase eco-friendly items such as beeswax wraps, produce bags, straws, utensils, water containers and more, as well other perks yet to be determined.

Eligible participants must provide photos of the front and back of their data sheet to the Pacific Whale Foundation Conservation Department at conservation@pacificwhale.org by the fifth day of the month following each cleanup. 

For more information or to sign up as a volunteer for Adopt a Beach, please visit our webpage: pacificwhale.org/adopt-a-beach/.