Kamilo Beach (literally, ''the twisting'' or ''swirling currents''Clark, John R. K. (1985), ''Beaches of the Big Island'', University of Hawaii Press, , p. 69 in Hawaiian), is a beach located on the southeast coast of the island of

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

. It is known for its accumulation of plastic

marine debris Marine debris, also known as marine litter, is human-created solid material that has deliberately or accidentally been released in seas or the ocean. Floating oceanic debris tends to accumulate at the center of gyres and on coastlines, freque ...

from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

History

In ancient times, Kamilo Beach was a location where

Native Hawaiians Native Hawaiians (also known as Indigenous Hawaiians, Kānaka Maoli, Aboriginal Hawaiians, or simply Hawaiians; , , , and ) are the Indigenous Polynesian people of the Hawaiian Islands. Hawaiʻi was settled at least 800 years ago by Polynesian ...

would go to find large

evergreen In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has Leaf, foliage that remains green and functional throughout the year. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which lose their foliage completely during the winter or dry season. Consisting of many diffe ...

logs that drifted ashore from the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (PNW; ) is a geographic region in Western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though no official boundary exists, the most common ...

, which they used for building dugout canoes. It was also a location where those who were lost at sea might eventually wash ashore.

Description

Kamilo Beach is approximately long, and is located on the remote southeast coast of the Kaū District on the island of Hawaii, at coordinates . There are no paved roads to the beach. This beach, situated on a lower lava terrace, is a storm beach. It was formed by the deposit of large amounts of sand blown by prevailing winds. At the point of Kamilo, waves have cut a large indentation, creating a variety of rocky points, ponds, and channels. Most of these are exposed during low tides, and are awash during high tides. The backshore at Kamilo contains such vegetation as naupaka, milo, and

ironwood Ironwood is a common name for many woods that have a reputation for hardness, or specifically a wood density that is denser than water (approximately 1000 kg/m3, or 62 pounds per cubic foot), although usage of the name ironwood in English ma ...

Debris

The beach is an accumulation zone for

plastic Plastics are a wide range of synthetic polymers, synthetic or Semisynthesis, semisynthetic materials composed primarily of Polymer, polymers. Their defining characteristic, Plasticity (physics), plasticity, allows them to be Injection moulding ...

trash. The debris is forced onto the beach by constant

trade wind The trade winds or easterlies are permanent east-to-west prevailing winds that flow in the Earth's equatorial region. The trade winds blow mainly from the northeast in the Northern Hemisphere and from the southeast in the Southern Hemisphere, ...

s and converging

ocean current An ocean current is a continuous, directed movement of seawater generated by a number of forces acting upon the water, including wind, the Coriolis effect, breaking waves, cabbeling, and temperature and salinity differences. Depth contours, sh ...

s. The debris is situated on the narrow, crescent-shaped strip of white sand, formed along the inland border of this area. The accumulated garbage that covers Kamilo Beach and an adjacent 2.8 miles (4.5 km) of shoreline consists of 90% plastic. Although some of the items comprising the trash are household products, the vast majority by weight are

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment (Freshwater ecosystem, freshwater or Marine ecosystem, marine), but may also be caught from Fish stocking, stocked Body of water, ...

related such as nets, rope, cones used to trap

hagfish Hagfish, of the Class (biology), class Myxini (also known as Hyperotreti) and Order (biology), order Myxiniformes , are eel-shaped Agnatha, jawless fish (occasionally called slime eels). Hagfish are the only known living Animal, animals that h ...

, spacers used in oyster farming,

buoy A buoy (; ) is a buoyancy, floating device that can have many purposes. It can be anchored (stationary) or allowed to drift with ocean currents. History The ultimate origin of buoys is unknown, but by 1295 a seaman's manual referred to navig ...

s, crates, and baskets. Much of the debris is made from plastic pellets, either pre-production nurdles or pellets created from larger plastic items breaking down into smaller pieces. In 2020, Hawaii's Department of Health designated the beach as impaired based on

plastic pollution Plastic pollution is the accumulation of plastic objects and particles (e.g. plastic bottles, bags and microbeads) in the Earth's environment that adversely affects humans, wildlife and their habitat. Plastics that act as pollutants are catego ...

, which is the first time that any Hawaiian waters will be listed as impaired this way.

Environmental impact

Wildlife Wildlife refers to domestication, undomesticated animals and uncultivated plant species which can exist in their natural habitat, but has come to include all organisms that grow or live wilderness, wild in an area without being species, introdu ...

in the area has suffered significant damage due to the on- and off-shore garbage. Fishing debris, such as discarded

fishing net A fishing net or fish net is a net (device), net used for fishing. Fishing nets work by serving as an improvised fish trap, and some are indeed rigged as traps (e.g. #Fyke nets, fyke nets). They are usually wide open when deployed (e.g. by cast ...

s and lines, drowns, strangles, and traps birds and

marine mammal Marine mammals are mammals that rely on marine ecosystems for their existence. They include animals such as cetaceans, pinnipeds, sirenians, sea otters and polar bears. They are an informal group, unified only by their reliance on marine enviro ...

s. Some types of plastic and their constituents, such as

bisphenol A Bisphenol A (BPA) is a chemical compound primarily used in the manufacturing of various plastics. It is a colourless solid which is Solubility, soluble in most common organic solvents, but has very poor solubility in water. BPA is produced on a ...

, bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate, and

polystyrene Polystyrene (PS) is a synthetic polymer made from monomers of the aromatic hydrocarbon styrene. Polystyrene can be solid or foamed. General-purpose polystyrene is clear, hard, and brittle. It is an inexpensive resin per unit weight. It i ...

leach

carcinogen A carcinogen () is any agent that promotes the development of cancer. Carcinogens can include synthetic chemicals, naturally occurring substances, physical agents such as ionizing and non-ionizing radiation, and biologic agents such as viruse ...

ic or poisonous

chemical A chemical substance is a unique form of matter with constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Chemical substances may take the form of a single element or chemical compounds. If two or more chemical substances can be combin ...

s when they break down. Others absorb

toxin A toxin is a naturally occurring poison produced by metabolic activities of living cells or organisms. They occur especially as proteins, often conjugated. The term was first used by organic chemist Ludwig Brieger (1849–1919), derived ...

s such as DDT and

polychlorinated biphenyl Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are organochlorine compounds with the formula Carbon, C12Hydrogen, H10−''x''Chloride, Cl''x''; they were once widely used in the manufacture of carbonless copy paper, as heat transfer fluids, and as dielectri ...

s from their surroundings. These toxins are absorbed by animals when consumed.

Cleanup efforts

Multiple community-based cleanup efforts have taken place on Kamilo Beach in recent years. Prior to these efforts, the debris was high in some places. Most of the efforts to clean up marine debris from Kamilo Beach have been led by the Hawaii Wildlife Fund and their countless beach cleanup volunteers, however other groups, including Imi Pono No Ka 'Aina, Hawaii Rainbow Gatherings, "CITO" geocachers, Sierra Club Hawaii and Beach Environmental Awareness Campaign Hawaii have also helped coordinate occasional events. In 2003, the Hawaii Wildlife Fund organized 100 volunteers and removed over 50 tons (45 metric tonnes) of fishing nets and other marine debris from the beach. See also: In November 2007, Beach Environmental Awareness Campaign Hawaii volunteers removed more than 4 million pieces of plastic from Kamilo Beach.

References

External links

Hawai'i Wildlife FundBBC News videoBeach Environmental Awareness Campaign Hawai`i
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20120915222536/http://www.algalita.org/pdf/amrf%20mar%2008%20nslttr%20web.pdf Environmental research study on marine plastic debrisbr>University of Hawai'i Environmental CenterGreat Garbage Patch siteKahea Hawaiian Environmental Alliance

How the oceans can clean themselves
– TED Talk Beaches of Hawaii (island) Ocean pollution Pollution in the United States