Hawaii Drift Card Study

In winter 2002, we began a drift card study to learn more about where floating pollutants might go in Hawaii. About once a month, volunteers released a batch of 100 cards from Barber's Point, near Honolulu, Hawaii. We hope that people who eventually find the cards will let us know when and where they find them. Our purpose is to learn where floating pollutants might go, under a variety of environmental conditions, if released from the south shores of Oahu.

Did you find a drift card?

If you've found one of our cards, please tell us where and when you found it, then click Submit Report. Providing this information is completely voluntary. We appreciate your help with our study!

Fields marked with a red asterisk * are required.

Card Number:

Location Description:*
Geographic coordinates are helpful. If you are relating the location to landmarks, please roughly estimate distances and orientation (e.g., "The card was found on the shore about a mile west of Diamond Head.")

Island (or other Location Name):*
The name of the Hawaiian Island (or country, state, or province) where you found the card.

Date Found:*
The date when you found the card. Please write out the name or abbreviation of the month to avoid ambiguity (e.g., "January" or "Jan" instead of "1").

Notes:
Any other comments or notes you'd like to add. We are interested to know the condition of the card, and if any organisms (such as barnacles or seaweed) were attached to it.

More Information

Frequently-Asked Questions Answers to questions that people have asked about our study.

Card Release Dates The dates of the drift card releases we have done so far in this study.

Preliminary results:

Maps showing the locations of found drift cards (updated 2/22/05).
Data File (160K Excel file) listing information about the drift cards that have been reported to us so far (updated 2/22/05). This file includes:
- Sheet 1, Cards Reported: For each card reported, the card's Release Number, the date and time it was released, the wind speed and direction at the time of release, the location and island where it was found, the date and time it was found, its condition when found, and the date it was reported to us.
- Sheet 2, Card Totals, by Island: The number of cards found on each island (broken down by Release Number).
- Sheet 3, Card Totals, by Card Release: The number of cards found from each release (broken down by island).

Wind Conditions It's important to know the wind conditions at the time the drift cards are released, and in the days following the release. For each release, we'll provide a stick plot showing the direction and magnitude (strength) of the wind when the drift cards were released (updated 02/09/07).

Kona Wind Releases We plan to release several sets of special cards during Kona wind events. These events, with winds from the south and southwest, usually occur several times during the winter months in Hawaii, and have the potential of carrying pollutants to the Waikiki and Diamond Head areas. Drift cards released before anticipated Kona winds will be labeled with a "K" (the first batch, for example, will be numbered "K1").

Hawaii Drift Card Study Factsheet (414K PDF file) Basic information about our study in a one-page factsheet.

Acknowledgements

The Hawaii Drift Card Study is part of NOAA's Coral Reef Conservation Program, designed to protect and restore the nation's coral reefs and assist conservation of reef ecosystems internationally.

This study was made possible by the dedicated staff of Clean Islands Council, an oil spill cooperative located on Sand Island. Clean Islands Council staff have released each batch of drift cards at Barber's Point. The Drift Card Team greatly appreciates their efforts!