Honolulu molasses spill

In September 2013, 1,400 tons of molasses spilled into Honolulu Harbor. The spill was discovered on 9 September 2013. It was caused by a faulty pipe that malfunctioned while the molasses was being loaded onto a ship, for which the shipping company Matson Navigation Co. took responsibility. Molasses is an unregulated product, and neither Matson nor government officials had a contingency plan to respond to a molasses spill. Natural currents and weather were expected to eventually dilute and flush the molasses out of the harbor and a nearby lagoon.

Divers in the harbor area reported that all sea life in the area were killed by the molasses, which instantly sank to the bottom of the harbor and caused widespread deoxygenation. Members of various coral species were injured or killed, and more than 26,000 fish and members of other marine species suffocated and died, 17,000 corals were also estimated to have been killed. One diver named Roger White was sent down into the harbor to investigate the extent of the damage caused by the molasses, and his findings were as follows: "It was shocking because the entire bottom is covered with dead fish. Small fish, crabs, mole crabs, eels. Every type of fish that you don't usually see, but now they're dead. Now they're just laying there. Every single thing is dead. We're talking in the hundreds, thousands. I didn't see one single living thing underwater".

The Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar on Maui produces molasses from fresh sugar cane, and ships it to the mainland to be processed and sold. Matson had been transporting molasses from Honolulu Harbor for 30 years and at the time was shipping it about once a week.