Please join us at a free presentation titled, “Thinking Like an Island:  How to Survive the Plastic Pollution Pandemic,” that will be offered by Hannah Bernard at the Wednesday, May 1 meeting of Maui Nui Marine Resource Council.

This free presentation will take place from 5:30 pm to 7:00 pm at The Sphere at Maui Ocean Center. Doors will open at 5 pm. Advance reservations are recommended, as seating is limited. To make a free reservation, visit https://bit.ly/MauiPlasticPollution

“While scientists and politicians may argue about climate change and its impact on our world ocean, the world is waking up to the devastating reality of the oceanic plastic plague,” says Bernard, the co-founder and Executive Director of Hawai’i Wildlife Fund.  “After several decades of local awareness-raising we are at a tipping point worldwide where plastic pollution of the ocean is widely recognized as one of the greatest threats of our time to the ocean ecosystem and even human health.”

Bernard’s talk will focus on ways individuals help turn the tide on the plastic plague and why there’s hope for the future.

“We are excited to have this opportunity to share Hannah Bernard’s extensive knowledge about plastic pollution with the community,” says Amy Hodges, Programs Manager at Maui Nui Marine Resource Council. “She’ll be sharing the latest findings about plastic pollution and offering commonsense ideas for ways to slow down and perhaps even stop the ‘plastic plague’ that is threatening our ocean and all marine wildlife.”

The meeting will also include updates on Maui Nui Marine Resource Council’s programs, including results from its ocean water quality monitoring program along the shores of south and west Maui and its program to improve ocean water quality at Ma’alaea Bay.

The meeting and presentation will take place at Maui Ocean Center at The Sphere, a new high-tech dome-shaped presentation space, offering reclining movie-theater style seats and state-of-the-art visuals and acoustics. (Learn more about The Sphere at www.mauioceancenter.com.) Maui Ocean Center is donating use of this space to Maui Nui Marine Resource Council for this event.

Doors open at 5 pm; please enter by the Administrative Office entrance at Maui Ocean Center. The presentation will take place from 5:30 pm to 7 pm. Admission is free and the public is invited. By order of the fire marshal, only 118 guests can be accommodated. Free reservations can be made by following this link: https://bit.ly/MauiPlasticPollution

About Hannah Bernard:
Co-Founder and Executive Director of Hawai’i Wildlife Fund, Hannah Bernard is an award-winning marine biologist with 37 years’ experience studying, teaching, leading expeditions and directing efforts to support research and conservation of Pacific Ocean marine life. In addition to co-founding the state’s Makai Watch program, she currently serves on the federally appointed False Killer Whale Take Reduction Team to address the incidental mortality and serious injury of false killer whales in Hawai`i’s longline fishery.

She has served on numerous Boards and committees, including the federally appointed Pacific Scientific Review Group, Sierra Club’s National Marine Wildlife and Habitat Committee, the ‘Ahini-Kina’u Advisory Group, the Hawai’i Ecotourism Association, the Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council, Save Honolua Coalition, Maui Surfrider Foundation, Maui Coral Reef Network, Maui Reef Fund and the ‘Ohana Coalition Steering Committee.

Hawai’i Wildlife Fund is a non-profit organization founded in 1996, and has initiated numerous community-based management projects and orchestrated the removal of more than 300 tons of marine debris from some of Hawai’i’s most impacted coastal habitats, protected more than 10,000 hawksbill sea turtle hatchlings and their mothers, and taught thousands of students and volunteers in the field and in the classroom through marine naturalist trainings, youth outreach programs and expeditions.

About Maui Nui.Marine Resource Council:
Maui Maui Nui Marine Resource Council is a Maui-based nonprofit organization celebrating 11 years of working for healthy coral reefs, clean ocean water and an abundance of native fish for the islands of Maui County. In addition to co-managing the Hui O Ka Wai Ola ocean water quality testing program, which tests ocean water quality at 39 locations along the south and west shores of Maui, the nonprofit is working to improve ocean water quality in Ma’alaea Harbor through the installation of caged oysters in the harbor. Maui Nui Marine Resource Council is also working in the Pohakea watershed above Ma’alaea Bay to prevent stormwater runoff to protect ocean water quality and the coral reefs located in the bay. To learn more, visit www.mauireefs.org