“Our partnership with the Sea Cleaners began in 2019 with two cross-cultural exchanges – one in New Zealand and another in Hawaiʻi – and continues to thrive,” said Lindsey O’Neil, a New Zealand-based sales executive at Hawaiian Airlines who helped escort the youth ambassadors.
“Our intent during this trip is to be good tourists and leave the place better than we found it, and also educate youth from around Oceania, so that when they go home, they can share their stories amongst their own community and help with slowing down the waste stream entering the pacific in the first place.”
“This initiative has a close fit with the concept of mālama and shows how that concept can be incorporated into, and is vital to the visitor industry,” said Darragh Walshe, New Zealand country manager for Hawaii Tourism Oceania.
Staff members from the airline, the tourism board and the non-profit, brought 10 youth ambassadors, including four Aussies, four Kiwis and two Hawaiʻi youth, on an experience of a lifetime.
Hawaiian Airlines team Kokua
We’re trying to teach these youth ambassadors about the impact of plastics on our oceans.
Regenerative tourism is all about people caring, connecting, collaborating and learning about values important to the place they visit.
The Sea Cleaners and its youth ambassadors arrived on Oahu on Sept. 13 and also hosted educational presentations at schools, cleaned beaches with Sustainable Coastlines Hawaiʻi, volunteered with Nā Kama Kai and engaged in various voluntourism experiences in the Mālama Hawaiʻi program. Where the Hawaiian Islands are situated geographically in the Pacific Ocean, the shores get inundated with plastic debris washing ashore from all different directions, so it’s been an eye-opening experience for many of them,” said Hayden Smith, Sea Cleaners Founder. “Their work is so important, and we’re proud to team up with them and Hawaiʻi Tourism Oceania in protecting shorelines across Hawaiʻi, Australia and New Zealand.”
It’s been three years since they last stepped foot on the Hawaiian Islands, but last weekend an Aussie and Kiwi team from Hawaiian Airlines, Hawaii Tourism Oceania and New Zealand Sea Cleaners ended a pandemic-ensued hiatus to team up in Hawai’i and remove rubbish from coastlines and beaches.
Today was inspiring and proof that every individual’s action matters. In total, they removed 3000 litres of debris, including fishing nets, plastic water bottles, and even toothbrushes were removed from the refuge coastline. In addition to supporting nonprofits like the Sea Cleaners, Hawaiian Airlines has focused on encouraging guests to help protect Hawaiʻi by educating those arriving in the Hawaiian Islands on how to travel safely and responsibly via a new in-flight video. This week has been a joy, and we feel so fortunate to be able to play a role in fostering the next generation of eco-leaders,” O’Neil added.
The group worked alongside 14 Hawaiian Airlines Team Kōkua volunteers and representatives from HTO, the Oʻahu Visitors Bureau and the Australian Consulate-General. The five-minute Travel Pono video launched in September 2021 and airs before landing on all inbound transpacific flights. To mark International Coastal Cleanup Day, they gathered at the James Campbell National Wildlife Refuge, on Oahu, an oceanside system of protected lands, marshes and waters managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
