June 4, 2021 — Hawaii has a new hotline to report ghost fishing nets, derelict gear and other plastic debris that washes ashore across the Hawaiian archipelago.
In a statement Thursday, state officials announced the new hotline, which uses phrasing from the Hawaii Pidgin language in the number: 833-4-Da-Nets.
State wildlife officials partnered with environmental groups to create the hotline so people can report marine debris that can then be quickly removed.
As they drift throughout the ocean, ghost nets and other fishing line continue to catch fish, sometimes entangling Hawaii’s humpback whales, sea turtles, endangered Hawaiian monk seals and seabirds.
“The idea is to have people call in hazardous nets immediately,” Kristen Kelly of Hawaii’s Division of Aquatic Resources Protected Species Program said in the statement. “We can mount a rapid response to remove these nets from our shorelines as quickly as possible and before they drift back into the open ocean.”