(CNN) A French man's attempt to swim across the Pacific Ocean may be over for now, but his campaign to warn the world about the dangers of plastic pollution in the ocean continues.

Benoît "Ben" Lecomte stepped on a beach on Oahu, Hawaii, on Monday, a little more than six months after he first entered the water in Japan in his attempt to swim across the ocean to San Francisco. Bad weather forced Lecomte and a support boat (a yacht called Discoverer, which has researchers and support crew on board) traveling with him to make the stop in the Aloha State.

Late last month Lecomte said he had abandoned his goal of becoming the first person to swim the Pacific Ocean, but reaching San Francisco still remains his ultimate goal, he told CNN affiliate KHON. That also means the main mission of Lecomte and his crew -- researching the effects of plastics in the ocean and raising awareness about it -- is still on track.

Lecomte, 51, and his support crew said they encountered a lot of plastic trash in the Pacific.

"Sometimes we're swimming with whales around and then boom, 10 minutes later, a big floating plastic, a blob. A lot of it is something that we all use at home," he told KHON. "To see that with sea life, that was very disturbing."