Impact of Marine Debris in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands
Vanessa Rodgers
Department of Educational Technology
University of Hawaii Manoa
Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S.A.
vrodgers@hawaii.edu
Abstract: The coral reefs and marine life of the Northwestern Hawaiian
Islands represent nearly 70% of the United States coral reef system and are
currently endangered from multiple stressors. One of these stressors,
marine debris, is completely avoidable because it is brought about by
human impact. Most of the debris consists of large amounts of derelict
fishing gear that accumulates and causes significant damage to shallow
coral reefs, and is a persistent threat to wildlife. This instructional module
delivered information about the impact of marine debris in an easy to
navigate website that also utilized videos and images to demonstrate the
concepts. Survey results indicated that almost all participants enjoyed the
module and one indicated they would like to expand on this project in their
PhD program. All participants showed an improvement from the pretest to
the posttest.
Introduction
NOAA defines marine debris as “any persistent solid material that is manufactured or
processed and directly or indirectly, intentionally or unintentionally, disposed of or
abandoned into the marine environment or the Great Lakes” (NOAA, 2011). Marine
debris reaches the ocean from various points including from the land via storm drains,
streams and rivers, and from boats leaving behind debris. The impact of marine debris is
diverse as it is not only an eyesore, but it damages natural habitats. It also poses hazards
to wildlife via entanglement and ingestion.
Plastics are persistent organic pollutants that can transport organic contaminants, and are
a major source of debris killing thousands of sea life and seabirds annually from
ingestion. This is likely due to garbage patches that consist of small bits of plastic debris
probably mistaken for food. The “eastern garbage patch” lies within the North Pacific
Subtropical High, an area between Hawaii and California. Marine debris is not only a
problem for the wildlife. It also affects human health and safety.
Two methods are used to determine the amount and deposition areas for cleanup. The
first method is called the manta tow, (Dameron, Parke, Albins, and Brainard, 2007) and
consists of towing two swimmers behind a boat while they look for debris. The second
method is using a buddy swim system, which uses a grid system so the swimmers know
the direction and how far to swim. This method is commonly used in lagoon areas.
The Northwestern Hawaiian Island coral reefs and marine life represent nearly 70% of
the United States coral reef system and are endangered from multiple stressors. One
stressor in particular, marine debris, is caused by human impact and is completely
avoidable. The most avoidable stressor is marine debris, which consists largely of
derelict fishing gear that accumulates and causes significant damage to shallow coral
reefs, and is a persistent threat to wildlife
Large amounts of marine debris pose as serious problem to the world’s only living
tropical, and now critically endangered Hawaiian Monk Seal (Boland and Donohue
2003). The large amounts of marine debris present in shallow reefs near the beach areas
where monk seals normally haul out to sleep and give birth are causing injury and death
to the monk seal. Furthermore, the threatened sea turtles also use these islands for
feeding, nesting, and resting.
Background
Students enrolled in the University of Hawaii’s Educational Technology program are
adept to learning in a variety of ways. These students are more familiar with educational
methods, and are perfect candidates to test a module about marine debris in the
Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.
The plan was to develop a web-based training module, created via Weebly, that was
designed to educate the learner about the duress the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands coral
reef system is experiencing. The ARC’s Model of Motivational Design was utilized to
gain the interest of the participant (Keller, 2008). Also, images and YouTube videos
were used to help gain attention of the learner. Relevance was achieved by presenting
future usefulness of the subject matter. Confidence and satisfaction were gained because
the learner could create useful feedback.
Success was be measured by collecting qualitative data from the graduate students of the
University of Hawaii’s Educational Technology program in the form of attitudinal
surveys and a one-on-one interview. Retrospective surveys provided evaluation from the
graduate student’s attitude towards the learning module. Responsibility for the marine debris lies with all of us. We must begin to take
appropriate measures to lessen the impact of the human footprint in the Northwestern
Hawaiian Islands. However, clean up of marine debris lies with several organizations,
(Donohue, 2003). Some of these organizations are federal and some are private, but now
there is a new Marine Debris Research, Prevention, and Reduction Act in place
coordinating federal activities. The Interagency Marine Debris Coordinating Committee
is co-chaired by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and The
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The Marine Debris Research, Prevention, and
Reduction Act, along with every person doing their part maintaining a Hawaii free of
debris will go a long way in sustainability of the environment.
Methods
A web-based module was developed to test the development of an instructional design
module about marine debris in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. The website
contained embedded, pre- and post-test surveys, and embedded videos and photos to
provide instruction and interaction.
Instructional strategies
The website was designed so the user could work through the module with ease of
navigation and multi-modality. An introduction provided an overview of the module.
The remaining pages each covered a section of the impact of marine debris on the
Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, as well as future impacts generated by the 2011 Japan
tsunami. Because people learn in different ways, the researcher used Multiple
Intelligence method with videos and visual aids to assist in learning the material. The
researcher also created a website with visual appeal by using white space, keeping the
tests similar in formatting, and using appropriate images for the subject being taught.
Universal Design for Learning
(UDL) recognizes that instruction needs to be
customized and adjusted to fit everyone, these UDL strategies were also used in the
creation of the website.
Technologies
All instruction and data collection took place through a twelve page Weebly website with
links to additional resources as needed. Weebly, a webpage creation site, was selected
for module development in order to provide the greatest ease of access, a wide range of
drag and drop elements, and time for the researcher to focus on content rather than on
website development.
Population
Students enrolled in the University of Hawaii’s Educational Technology program are
adept to learning in a variety of ways. The students are more familiar with educational
technology methods, and were perfect candidates to test the researcher’s module about
marine debris in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands because they could point out areas
needed for improvement. A call for participation was sent by email to students active in
the Educational Technology program, with the link to enter the website. The participants
did not need support in using the technologies involved, so no instruction was given in
this regard.
Data Collection
Quantitative and qualitative data were collected using pre, post and exit surveys to
determine the effectiveness of the instructional module. The surveys were built in
Google documents and embedded in the Weebly website. To ensure that the surveys
were anonymous, participants were asked to create and input a code on the pre, post and
exit surveys. Likert scale questions compared pre, embedded and post-test understanding
of the marine debris project and its elements.
There were seventeen respondents in the data collection phase. However, out of the
seventeen respondents only fourteen completed both the pre- and post-tests. One out of
the seventeen completed the post-test, but not the pre-test. Two out of the seventeen
completed the pre-test but not the post-test. The results were still considered to be
sufficient for comparison.
Results
The fourteen participants that responded to both the pre- and post-tests reported that they
had a better understanding of the effects of marine debris and the efforts done to help
decrease its impact. Furthermore, participant’s numbers four, seven, and eleven
demonstrated as having the greatest improvement from pretest to post-test (see Figure 1).
After a closer look at the data, it was apparent that questions five and six demonstrated
that participants had little understanding of the “best methods for reducing costs when
addressing large-scale marine debris problems,” and the “two survey methods used to
detect marine debris” prior to starting the instructional module. These two questions saw
the greatest improvement in the post-test (See Figure 2). On the same note, question two
saw the least gain between pretest and post-test due to the already high score on the
pretest.
Discussion
It appears that all participants benefited from the additional instruction provided by the
website (Figure 1). Results also indicated that almost all participants had only nominal
familiarity with the impact of marine debris in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. The
feedback and scores from the majority of participants indicated they felt the website was
well designed and effective in its delivery of content. The participants felt that the site
was easy to navigate, and was helpful in their understanding of the impact that marine
debris has on the Hawaiian Islands.
Conclusion
Marine debris in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands remains a problem for wildlife and
human sustainability as it greatly impacts the coral reef system. Therefore, education
about the impact of marine debris is essential toward reducing the problem. The
connection between the coral reef system and sustainability is key to understanding the
impact of marine debris.
It is vital that additional and ongoing support is provided via the Marine Debris Research,
Prevention, and Reduction Act. However, there is room for improvement
Overall the researcher concluded that people do not understand the impact of marine
debris or the efforts required to clean the debris. It is essential to teach people early in
life the impacts of marine debris so they gain a better understanding of why we need to
properly dispose of trash. Furthermore, there is a need to teach the methods to cleaning
marine debris so that people understand the difficulty of such an enormous task. Lastly,
it is imperative to teach people not only how marine debris affects the environment, but
them as well. A future module should encompass all of these suggestions, and be given
to students in elementary school.
References
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