Center for Marine Debris Research

We had such an amazing time this weekend with Sustainable Coastlines Hawaii at their earth day beach cleanup! Thank you so much to all the amazing volunteers for an impactful cleanup & for stopping by to talk plastic science! Mahalo SCH for having us!

Under the Sea Big mahalo to everyone who’s been reporting ghost nets around island! We’ve been able to remove 45 nets from O‘ahu for our ghost net research project. If you spot a net while kayaking, surfing, snorkeling or just hanging out on the beach, don’t hesitate to shoot us a message! ... : Rachel Sandquist _____________________________________ #PlasticFree #PlasticFreeHawaii #PlasticFreeOceans #HIplasticpollution #PlasticFreeForTheSea #dowhatyoucan #plasticpollution #keepourwaterclean #saveourseas #researchanddevelopment #HPU #environmentalscience #Researchcenter #HIlife #OahuHawaii #polymers #polymerscience #Researchers #ScientistsOfInstagram #scienceiscool #LabsofInstagram #OceanScience #Research #teamworkmakesthedreamwork #teamscience #environment #doitforthedata #GhostNet #GhostNetResearch #GhostNetRemoval See more

The future of science! We had some young volunteers join us and they were able to help out, hands on with our steps in the net shed. We love getting all ages involved in the work we do and it’s always inspiring to see all generations learning about plastic pollution.

Teamwork makes the dream work! We have already started sampling the ghost nets that came back from the Papahnaumokukea Marine National Monument and our goal is to have them completed within the next few months! We cannot thank our team off staff, students, and volunteers enough for their efforts!

Do it for the Data! While we wish every day was spent on the water, a lot of our days look like this! Our staff and students are always hard at work in the lab to push our research forward, and we are so grateful for them!

Research Update! Current MSMS student Sarah Hutchinson is all about the seabirds! Sarah’s project aims to extend from previous research conducted from 2009 - 2010 looking at how much plastic local Wedge-tailed Shearwater chicks were eating. The current project investigates chicks from 2011 - 2014 to give an additional 4 years of data!... Students Tim, Angelianne, and Emma have been hard at work analyzing the plastic samples and results so far show that the chicks in this time period have consumed PE (Polyethylene) and PP (Polypropylene) plastics. : 1. Live chick from the Freeman Seabird Reserve 2. Plastic removed from a WTS chick 3. Sarah Hutchison ( shot by Kate Dolbier ) See more

Congratulations to our amazing Spring 2021 Graduates! CMDR has four incredible students that will be walking the stage this spring: Zak B.S. in Environmental Science Jazmin B.S. in Marine Biology Natasha M.S. in Marine Science... Kristine M.A. of Sustainability We are so proud of these students for all their hard work and their dedication to CMDR! Give them a big congratulations in the comments! See more

Come join us this Sunday at Kahuku Golf course 12-2pm for Seed.world beach clean up!

Thank you Seed.world for having us at your beach clean up this weekend and thank you to everyone who participated in the event!