Marine Debris

Submitted by ellen on

In 2015, high resolution (2 cm) aerial imagery of the coastlines within the MHI were obtained. This imagery was analyzed to identify and quantify densities of marine debris on all shores across the State. Point locations of marine debris items by type and size-class were obtained from the Hawai‘i Division of Aquatic Resources. These point data were converted to raster by summing the number of items, weighted by size class, within 100 m pixels. Then focal statistics was used to calculate the total amount of marine debris within 2 km of each coastal and marine map pixel, in order to extend the data offshore. This method assumes that the amount of debris washed up on a shoreline is indicative of the amount of debris on adjacent offshore reefs. Units of the final layer were normalized from 0 - 1.

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MARINE DEBRIS