The clean-up, the first of its kind on that stretch of coastline, took place in early February and involved eight South Westland volunteers and two Department of Conservation (Doc) staff.
Doc's South Westland community relations programme manager Julian Tovey said the area covered by the team ranged from Awarua Point through to Cascade River, an area accessible only by foot, boat or air.
"It's a pretty cool part of the world and it's not where we should be seeing all this rubbish," he said.
Doc staff were spurred into action after Haast-based Greenstone Helicopters pilot Geoff Robson reported back on his bird's-eye view of the increasing volumes of rubbish on the beaches and suggested something needed to be done.
About $20,000 worth of helicopter time was subsequently donated by the company, with Mr Robson and fellow pilot Peter Spencer-Bower using their Robinson 44 choppers to assist with the operation.
Since the recovered material was delivered to Doc's base at Haast, staff had been busy sorting and identifying its probable sources, so a "low-key" campaign of educating companies and providing "a level of advocacy" could begin, Mr Tovey said.
Many of the buoys found in the clean-up were marked with "one-off" boat names, making them easily traceable, as was a plastic fish crate bearing a "Stolen From Talleys" stamp. Talleys' head office was among the places Mr Tovey planned to visit to discuss good fishing practices and reducing ocean littering.
He hoped commercial fishing operators might contribute to future clean-ups.
"If that can be funded by the operators that put it [the garbage] out there then that's got to be a benefit."
Eighteen fadges of recyclable plastic - mostly fishing buoys and floats and plastic bottles - were recovered during the operation, along with six fadges of rubbish going to landfill, one fadge of recyclable metal, six cray pots and four tyres.
Mr Tovey said recovering the large amount of rope and net which made up a good portion of the rubbish was particularly gratifying, as it would have posed a huge risk for marine wildlife.
Some of the more unusual discoveries included 17 shoes, a baseball mitt, two badminton rackets, a drill and two lightbulbs.
