In the Ocean and on the Beach in Waikiki, 100’s of plastic debris in the sea

This morning I went for a walk down to the ocean in Waikiki.

I was headed towards Queen’s beach between the wall and Lifeguard tower 2F. It’s a good place to check out the surf conditions, look for whales and swim.

As I got closer I started seeing what looked like dozens and dozens of about 4″ long white plastic cylindrical shaped pieces floating in the ocean and washing onto the sand, the closer I got, the more I saw.

I took this picture when I got home, I wanted to document some of the literally 100’s of pieces of plastic we found. The inside reef area was covered in these plastic pieces and what looks like firework detonators, which also have plastic rings on them.

I remembered last night, Thursday 02/10/2011, we saw and heard fireworks going off near Waikiki. I am not sure who or why, and didn’t see anything in the paper about it today. Could this be firework debris?

Such a sad sight, and I couldn’t stop thinking about the birds, monk seals, whales, dolphins, and honu dying from eating them!

What kind of chemicals are on the detonator ends floating in the sea and in fireworks and do they always end up in the ocean like this?

As I started collecting these pieces, a few wonderful people joined in, everyone wondering the same thing, are these from last nights fireworks and is anyone ever responsible for cleaning up after them?

If anyone knows more, especially about the Hilton Hawaiian fireworks on Friday night, we would really appreciate more information.

This was an eye opener for me. I will sadly never watch aerial fireworks again without thinking about the plastic debris and chemicals falling into the ocean and the potentially deadly consequences for all sea creatures that are a direct result of plastic in the sea.