A couple celebrating their anniversary on Lanai last week ended up recovering a 1,500-pound ball of fishing net and plastic trash.

Sven Lindblad and Kristin Hettermann were exploring the coastline of Lanai by boat on Feb. 20 when they spotted a large mass of trash that had washed ashore on some tide pools near Nanahoa Islet in an area known as Three Stone.

Not wanting to just leave it there, the couple returned the next day with boat captain Jason Allen of Fish N Chips and local free diver Skylar Fisher to recover the large mass, which was so dense that it bent a large metal marine grade hook that the group tried to use to drag the netting out to sea.

The group was able to tie a line around the girth of the mass and slowly tow it back to the Manele Small Boat Harbor over the course of two hours.

Hettermann said that the mass is being cut into pieces and moved to the dump, which is where the state Department of Land and Natural Resources instructed them to take it. The couple also is reaching out to nonprofits to see if they can recycle the nets or turn them into a public awareness exhibit. The pair wants to raise awareness about the dangers that abandoned fishing nets can pose to both marine life and boats.

“Hopefully in the future, new materials will be made that can address human needs (sustenance, transport) and not last for decades in our natural systems,” Hettermann said. “Even though what we saw was a lot of fishing net, the blame is not to rest on the fishermen just throwing their trash in the ocean. So much of our modern challenge rests in just cleaning up the remnants of the past.”

Lindblad and Hettermann are based between Maui and New York and are both active in the international ocean conservation arena. Lindblad is the founder of Lindblad Expeditions, “a pioneering expedition travel company” that partners with National Geographic. Hettermann, his fiancee, is the founder of OCEANSCAPES, a photography and “artivism platform.”