Operation Clean Waves
Kiribati is one of the most threatened island nations due to climate change, with some of its atolls predicted to be completely underwater in 30 to 50 years if climate change keeps its current course.
On Fanning Island, a dangerous blend of human impact has converged in a way that may result in this world’s next climate change refugees. Our decisions are transforming and falling on the shoulders of a small island nation that the rest of the world does not see.
Sea Shepherd is working with local communities to determine how to best alleviate the pressures currently weighing on Fanning’s ecosystem and people.
After an initial assessment, it became clear that plastic management is one challenge that Sea Shepherd can help alleviate. The roadsides are dotted with an assortment of single-use materials from tin cans and water bottles to noodle wrappers and styrofoam, with no way off the island. Similar to the plastic found in our oceans ending up in the stomachs of fish and shorebirds, locals have found bits of plastic in the bellies of the chickens and pigs they cook for food.
The present waste management model in effect by locals is to burn their waste or bury it in scattered small-scale landfills.
Sea Shepherd has collaborated with the local community to pilot a plastic management program on Fanning Island in order to keep plastics out of their food sources and away from the reef system on which the island is depending on for food, livelihood, and protection. The program will collect, sort, and ship plastics away from Fanning Island on the Kwai, a cargo ship that arrives every 2 months, where it will be properly recycled in Honolulu.
During the transit to Fanning Atoll Sea Shepherd towed a device, known as the manta trawl to collect samples of micro-plastics, completing a transect from Hawaii all the way to the equator.
This video (3.38) shows the impacts on Fanning Island:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pk6P-FAPtf8&t=24s