On Nov. 28, Kula Elementary Students in grades four through six, participating in Save Our Seas Ocean Pulse Program, found an enormous net covering the reef 400 yards offshore of the ‘Anini boat ramp. Six students, SOS president Captain Paul
On Nov. 28, Kula Elementary Students in grades four through six, participating in Save Our Seas Ocean Pulse Program, found an enormous net covering the reef 400 yards offshore of the ‘Anini boat ramp.
Six students, SOS president Captain Paul Clark and teachers Ben Gaskin and Chris Skabo detached the net and swam it 100 yards to the buoy in the channel.
The group freed a large green turtle, but Clark said there was also a fish hung up in the net that was already dead.
Too much for the group to handle, they tied it off to the buoy chain until the next day, when six high school seniors and ocean stewards, led by Forrest Freedom from Kula High School, were able to swim the net in, attach it to a truck and drag it to the parking lot to await disposal services.
“This is always a team effort; it takes everyone to make a difference,” Clark said. “It is easy to get involved, when you see something like this, take immediate action.”
Clark said residents and visitors who see something threatening marine life or a marine environment like that should call the state Department of Land and Natural Resources or the SOS Ocean Pulse Crew, who can help contact the proper authorities.
“Nets like these endanger countless sea creatures like turtles, seals, dolphin and whales,” he said. “It is imperative that we remove these nets before they cause harm to our endangered species.”
SOS Project Ocean Pulse is a hands-on, comprehensive study of coral reefs that uses the ocean and beaches as living classrooms and has been working with Kula Elementary, Intermediate and High School for six years.
Last Saturday brought another challenge to the SOS cleanup crew. Clark and his son, Orion, and daughter, Maya, got a call from Eastside resident Scott Ferguson about a bale of an “unknown substance” that had washed up along Kaua‘i’s eastern shore and was in danger of breaking apart and being washed into the surf.
The bale was cotton-like, floated easily, and not very absorbent.
“This type of material is the exact stuff that ends up in countless bird and turtle stomachs,” said Ferguson, who is vice president of the Na Pali Coast Ohana.
“Sometimes you have to give back to the island that has given so much to you,” said Kula High School 10th-grader Matt Clark, who donated his Saturday morning to help the SOS crew.
