Ship returns to Honolulu with record-setting haul of trash from the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch”

HONOLULU (KHON) — Non-profit organization Ocean Voyages Institute issued a press release announcing the return of one of its vessels with 102 tons of oceanic trash.

“After 48 days at sea, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic,” the press release states, “Ocean Voyages Institute (OVI)’s vessel KWAI, returns to Honolulu to announce a record-setting recovery and removal of fishing nets and consumer plastics from the North Pacific Subtropical Convergence Zone, more commonly known as the North Pacific Gyre/Great Pacific Garbage Patch.”

The haul totaled 102 tons, more than doubling the record OVI set in 2019 when it recovered 48 tons of nets and plastic.