Derelict fishing gear poses a hazard to Hawaii’s coral reefs, smothering and damaging live coral. Fishing nets and plastic gear floating free in the ocean also entangle and drown marine animals — or, once they begin to break up, may be swallowed, harming or killing fish and birds.

It’s a win-win, then, that Hawaii Pacific University’s Center for Marine Debris Research is researching the origins of derelict fishing gear and offering an incentive to bring it in before it damages reefs, with a bounty of $1 to $3 per dry pound to commercial fishers who retrieve loose gear from the open ocean. Find out more at hpu.edu/bounty.