Our team works throughout the Hawaiian island chain with a focus on high impact cleanups, education and community collaboration

The Parley Global Cleanup Network works to protect marine environments from plastic pollution and other threats. Through collaborative cleanups with local businesses and organisations, our teams intercept plastic waste from beaches, remote islands, rivers, mangroves and coastal communities. With cleanups in 30 countries so far and counting, the Network also works on local education, awareness campaigns and government engagement to drive change.

Each country team shares our vision for healthier oceans globally, and works locally to champion the Parley AIR Strategy in their nation. As of 2021, Parley has worked with over 750 collaborators, engaged over 260,000 volunteers and conducted more than 4500 cleanups worldwide.

Located in the middle of the vast Pacific Ocean, the Hawaiian islands are some of the most isolated on earth. Composed of eight major islands, the archipelago extends ~1,500 miles from Kure Atoll to the most southern part of the United States at Ka Lae on Hawai‘i Island. Hawai‘i has a very unique ecosystem, with endemic species, 85% of the US’ coral reef cover, and an amazing array of terrestrial and marine life that as a result of human impacts, relies on continuous conservation for survival.

The Hawaiian culture shares intimate ancestral knowledge and shows the ultimate respect for the oceans. Malama i ke kai, a local value that dates back over centuries, means to "care for or protect the ocean" and the chant of creation, the kumulipo, explains that all life began in the sea, that humanity is tied to all living things, especially marine life. The first living creature to appear in the kumulipo being the ko’a (coral); “Hanau ka ʻUku-koʻakoʻa, hanau kana, he ʻAkoʻakoʻa.”

“Our survival is inextricably linked to the health of the oceans”

– Kahi Pacarro, Parley Hawai‘i

Featured Projects

Parley AIR Station

Composed of modular container systems, Parley AIR Stations act as communal hubs for local communities and youth to meet, interact, learn, access new technologies and collaborate on solutions for the oceans. Together with local partners, Parley delivers educational programs, inspiring and empowering a new class of ambassadors for a global ocean movement.

As part of this year’s Earth Week celebrations, our team in Hawaiʻi recently unveiled the latest and largest Parley AIR Station to date. Expanding our global programs, the new AIR Station is located on the grounds of the Bishop Museum in Honolulu, the largest museum in Hawai‘i. Receiving over 200,000 visitors annually, the museum is the premier natural and cultural history institution in the Pacific, recognized worldwide for its cultural collections, scientific research, and public educational programming.

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Ocean Uprise Youth Leadership Summit

The ocean is our classroom and our teacher. In order to protect marine ecosystems and their inhabitants, we need to get to know and love them. There’s no better way to learn about the sea than through total immersion into the beautiful blue universe we’re fighting to preserve and protect. This belief guides the curriculum of Ocean Uprise, a Parley initiative – by youth, for youth – that blends ocean education and activism with exploration on, around, and in the marine environment.

Ocean Uprise Youth Leadership Summit was created as an unparalleled experience dedicated to empowering young leaders to accelerate change #fortheoceans. The 5-day summit happened on the North Shore of Oahu in 2019, with 28 youth participants from all around the globe, and focused on the scientific and cultural understanding of marine environments and the co-creation of solutions together with a world class line up of speakers. Special guests included Dr. Cliff Kapono, Emily Penn, Nainoa Thompson, Kai Lenny and Kimi Werner. Participants also experienced ocean immersion activities such as swimming, surfing and snorkeling and took action in the local community by actively participating in a coastal cleanup at James Campbell Wild Refuge Park.

Dates for the next Ocean Uprise Youth Leadership Summit are being defined, please visit Ocean Uprise to register your interest.

Community cleanups

Even though Hawai‘i is known globally for its tropical beauty, blue waters, amazing surf and white sand beaches, its coastline accumulates marine debris from all directions across the Pacific. As Hawai‘i is situated in the middle of the North Pacific Gyre, drifting debris washes ashore every single day, some originating locally from litter and illegal dumping, but the vast majority brought by major ocean currents carrying the remnants of industrialized fishing and overconsumption of plastics. This debris creates numerous environmental and economic risks to Hawai‘i and the Pacific Ocean.

Parley Hawai‘i runs a variety of educational initiatives that create ocean awareness and collaborates with local organizations to carry out ocean immersion experiences as well as high impact missions, intercepting massive nets and discarded fishing gear before they destroy shoreline ecosystems and the local communities who depend on it.

Ghost net retrieval

In 2019, Parley Hawai‘i teams collaborated with a group of international and local scientists, NGOs and volunteers to intercept and dispose of a large ghost net off the north coast of Maui. The massive tangle of discarded fishing nets and ropes, weighing about 1500lbs, was first located and tagged by Greenpeace some 700 nautical miles northeast of Hawai‘i. After wandering in the gyre and multiple interactions with ocean eddies and storms, its trajectory turned towards Hawai‘i and Parley mobilized to help track down and intercept the ghost gear before it landed on the island’s reefs or shoreline.

“This interception could be the start of something much bigger that reduces the impact these giant conglomerates are having on our reefs, wildlife, and coastlines,” explains Parley Hawai‘i’s Kahi Pacarro. “Although we want to focus on the source, we also need to deal with the realities of the present. Too many conglomerates are damaging our near shore resources. Intercepting them before making landfall and knowing where they tend to land will help us minimize the damage.”