Hawaiʻi’s location in the middle of the Pacific Ocean makes it a vortex for marine debris, with more than 200 tons of ocean garbage washing up every year in the Hawaiian Islands.

Most of it comes from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch about 500 to 1,000 miles northeast of Hawaiʻi, and all of it threatens marine life and public health, according to researchers at Hawaiʻi Pacific University.

And in Maui’s coastal waters and along its shorelines, 15,000 to 20,000 pounds of abandoned or lost fishing gear and other large marine debris are collected annually by organizations and volunteers, and then hauled to Māʻalaea to be put into a 20-foot container, said Brianna Simon, conservation and outreach manager of the Pacific Whale Foundation.

The container is shipped about twice a year to Oʻahu, where it is picked up by staff from the Center for Marine Debris Research for its contents to be studied and recycled.

But not all of Maui’s ocean garbage makes it to Oʻahu. Some is now hanging on people’s walls and in businesses due to the work of Maui artist Michiko Smith.

The 32-year-old picks out ghost nets and other marine debris that she thinks will make lovely art. She also scours the shorelines for marine trash she can turn into treasure. It can be physical work, with one ghost net she collected weighing 280 pounds.

Ghost nets are derelict gear abandoned or lost. In the Pacific, it primarily comes from Asian trawlers. The large nets wash up on beaches or get tangled on rocks and coral reefs in nearshore waters. Farther offshore, the nets strangle sea creatures, including whales, turtles and dolphins.

When Smith works with the collected ghost nets, she sorts them by color. She never dies the nets, keeping them their original colors.

She also washes the nets to get rid of the sand and because they “stink” from the ocean.

They also are a tangled mess, requiring her to painstakingly remove the knots, a long process that she says “I’m thankful that I have the patience to do.”

Smith makes original frames from wood. She learned the skill from her father, a carpenter who specialized in woodworking and did many projects for TS Restaurants. She gets some of her artistic side from her paternal grandmother, who was a professional painter.

Once she has made her frame, Smith picks a design she wants to make, draws it on a wood background, and then starts cutting ghost net with a hot knife.

She glues the pieces into a design, usually something that’s marine-related or the endemic plants and animals of Hawaiʻi. 

“I’m pretty much inspired by my surroundings living on Maui and Hawaiʻi in general,” she said.

Smith got her passion for the land from her mother’s side, with many relatives generational farmers in California.

Smith said she doesn’t mind the laborious work of turning ghost nets into art, saying she is fueled by her love of the ocean and marine life and it has enabled her to make a living as a self-employed artist.

DIVING INTO ART

Smith earned a college degree in environmental science and has done coral reef restoration work on Maui. She also recently worked as an ʻāina technician at Kipuka Olowalu, a nonprofit with a mission to preserve customary and traditional practices of kanaka maoli (Native Hawaiians) by restoring land. The organization promotes cultivation of native species, loʻi (wetland terrace) restoration, removal of invasive species and organic farming, and it honors the traditional ahupuaʻa system of land management.

While working at Kipuka Olowalu was gratifying, Smith knew she wanted to devote herself full-time to her art. So in February, she did.

“I’ve been producing a ton of different art, changing my style a little bit, adding more wood into it,” Smith said. “I’ve been selling a lot more pieces, bigger pieces, which is nice.”

Most of her sales come from her Instagram or through word of mouth.

When she starts a new piece, Smith said she often doesn’t have a clear idea what she wants to create. Her imagination is a guide, with inspiration from native plants and the marine environment.

“It’s a fun process,” she said.

For her makeshift studio, she is using the garage and backyard of her newly purchased home in Wailuku.

Originally from Nāpili, Smith and her fiancé were living in Lahaina when the deadly 2023 wildfire destroyed their home and most of the town. The coupled moved to Kīhei, but a mold problem in their rental forced them to move again.

That led Smith and her now wife, Makenna Kuykendall, who owns a piercing business, to buy the new home.

Smith creates her art almost entirely from ghost nets, which comprise up to 90% of marine debris.

She partners with the Pacific Whale Foundation to collect the derelict gear, including nets, ropes, lines, pots, floats, traps and other equipment. The foundation is Maui’s designated response organization under the state’s marine debris rapid response program.

The foundation maintains a list of volunteers who respond to reports of abandoned fishing gear and other debris in Maui’s coastal waters and shoreline. It also coordinates with researchers and scientists who are studying the problem and attempting to limit its scope.

After the foundation delivers its collected marine debris to the Center for Marine Debris Research, which is housed within Hawaiʻi Pacific University, researchers go to work. They track the quantities of marine debris washing up in Hawaiʻi, as well as it where it comes from. They also study the impacts, work on how to prevent it, and develop methods to recycle ocean garbage and transform into useful products.

After the debris is deposited at the center’s warehouse in Kalihi, an industrial part of Honolulu, staff and volunteers go into action.

“We spend several weeks disentangling all of that marine debris to ideally separate out the high-density polyethylene trawl nets, which is the number one source of marine debris in the state of Hawaiʻi,” said Jennifer Lynch, who holds a doctorate in marine environmental toxicology and directs the center’s work.

“We don’t have any trawl fleets here in Hawaiʻi so all of this is coming from elsewhere and our research is really helping understand where it’s coming from so that we can work on prevention,” she said.

On Aug. 6, the Center for Marine Debris Reseach and Taiwan’s Ocean Conservation Administration signed an agreement to launch a formal trans-Pacific partnership targeting marine debris and derelict fishing gear in the North Pacific Ocean.

“But until we can get the tap closed on the Asian trawl fisheries that are the culprit, we’re going to have to continue removing marine debris,” she said.

The center is experimenting with converting ghost nets into road pavement material and plastic lumber. In a pilot project with the Hawaiʻi Department of Transportation, the center is testing whether an experimental road in a residential area on Oʻahu, paved in part with polyethylene from ghost nets, meets durability and safety standards.

The center also has shipped 200 pounds of trawl nets to the University of Nebraska for testing whether the recycled materials can hold up as decking boards safe for construction use.

So far, both projects have yielded promising early results, Lynch said.

The center also is attempting to reduce marine debris from degrading Hawaiʻi’s shores and harming marine life by incentivizing commercial fishers and other vessel operators to haul it back to docks where it can be disposed of properly. Through the Bounty Project, fishers can receive between $1 and $3 dollars per pound of derelict fishing gear they bring back to shore.

The center also likes to support artists like Smith who raise public awareness about marine debris and how to curb it.

Lynch said artists are welcome to use as much of the marine debris collected at the center as they want: “We have a lot of fun artists involved in making something that transcends the debris and really tells the beautiful story of all the hard work we’re doing to keep our oceans clean.”

Smith has sold 20 original pieces of artwork in the past two years. They have ranged in price from $180 to $3,000.

But while her art business is doing well and sales are increasing, Smith continues to worry about the future of the ocean because of threats, including marine debris and the impact of commercial fishing.

She points to the Trump administration’s recent decision to eliminate commercial fishing bans in five national marine monuments, opening the Mariana Trench, Papahānaumokuākea and Rose Atoll marine national monuments to industrial harvesting. Environmental groups blasted the move while commercial fishing interests welcomed it.

“There’s just so many threats towards the ocean. It’s sad,” she said. “There’s such a big demand for fish.”

While Smith can’t control what happens in the ocean waters surrounding Hawaiʻi, she can do her part by removing some of the marine debris that washes up on her island and turning it into art that can be appreciated.

Her pieces can take up to a month to create.

“It’s a long process and I get lost on the amount of time,” she said, adding that she doesn’t mind because “I’m focused on being proud of the work.”