A crew from Chevak, Alaska recover a submerged boat, part of the marine debris created by Typhoons Merbok (2022) and Helong (2025) (photo: Richard Tuluk).
Typhoon Merbok swept buildings, boats, and tons of trash into the sea off the west coast of Alaska in 2022. The city of Chevak is one of many coastal Alaska Native communities tasked with helping to find and recover that and other marine debris clogging the coastal waters and shorelines. With federal funding help, the ongoing cleanup is aimed at making the waterways safe for people and marine animals. A similar project is underway in Hawai’i, where the non-profit Papahānaumokuākea Marine Debris Project works year-round, pulling tons of debris from around the northwestern Hawaiian Islands, a place sacred to Native Hawaiians. Coastal tribes are an important piece of the puzzle for solving the growing problem of derelict nets, ropes, boats and other trash that threaten marine ecosystems. In this program, we’ll talk with some of the people involved in the cleanup about what it takes to rid marine areas of unsightly and dangerous debris.
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