NEWS DESK
Mechanical beach cleaning fails test Liz Bell liz@mpnews.com.au MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire Council is reconsidering its mechanical beach cleaning practices after doubts were raised about the effectiveness of the process. Rye-based environmental advocate and former Citizen of the Year Josie Jones said mechanical beach cleaning was creating more macro plastics on the beach and causing serious pollution issues. Jones has produced a report after spending months researching and collecting plastic waste from Safety Beach and Capel Sound to prove that mechanical beach cleaning does not remove all of the waste but shatters it into smaller pieces that get buried in the sand. “I have doubted the effectiveness of the mechanical beach cleaning for a long time,” she said. Earlier this year Cr David Gill sais he wanted to end the use of “the mechanical beach raking machine”, as the machines were not effective because they broke plastics and glass into pieces, removed seaweed, and killed or removed creatures living in the sand (“Mechanical beach raking ‘must end’” The News 13/6/23). Jones said she was shocked at how “ineffective” mechanical beach cleaning was. “People don’t realise how much plastic it leaves behind, but when you see how much I’ve collected after beach raking, it’s quite shocking,” she said.
Waste not wanted: Josie Jones with litter collected from a beach after it had been mechanically “cleaned”. Picture: Yanni
Jones said her studies had shown that a surprising amount of litter could still be found in the sand after raking, and that based on the large amount buried plastics, projections showed
that the 23.74 kilometres of regularly raked beaches could potentially contain more than 600,000 pieces of macro plastics. ” Excluding soft plastics, macro
plastics are broken particles of a bigger item … 98 per cent of this hard plastic is unbreakable by the hand or foot in the sand,” she said. The mayor Cr Steve Holland said
the council had been reviewing its beach cleaning practices for the past three months, partnering with Monash University to complete a review. The review looked at the cost, efficiency, environmental and community benefit, and the role of volunteers in relation to beach cleaning. “We consulted widely with contractors, local stakeholder groups such as Beach Patrol and individual community members such as Josie Jones,” he said. “While more accurate data is needed to determine best practice, there are indications we need to be more flexible with the method and frequency of our beach cleaning program. “Our coast is highly dynamic and our approach to beach cleaning needs to continue to evolve and adapt to the needs of our community and the environment.” Holland said a report would be brought to council early in 2024 presenting the final results of the beach cleaning review, along with a revised beach cleaning program.
Peninsula may be dropped from kangaroo ‘harvest’ WILDLIFE groups have welcomed a proposal to remove kangaroos on the Mornington Peninsula from the commercial kangaroo harvest scheme. If adopted, the changes will come into effect in 2025 and last until 2028. However, property owners will still be able to apply for permit to “control wildlife”. Public comments can be made about the Victorian Kangaroo Harvest Management Plan 2024-2028 until Monday 4 December. The Save Kangaroos on the Mornington Peninsula (SKOMP) group hailed the peninsula kangaroo’s removal from the plan as “great news”. Kangaroos are the peninsula currently included in the Gippsland harvesting zone, which wildlife advocates say distorts the actual number of kangaroos in the area.
SKOMP spokesperson Craig Thomson said the group wanted the change to be adopted from 2024 and for an end to lethal measures provided in the Authority to Control Wildlife permit system. Thomson said SKOMP was grateful for the support of the community over the past four years in opposing the harvesting of kangaroos and for taking “a strong position” in fighting for the removal of peninsula kangaroos from the scheme. “There is no doubt to us at SKOMP that the current proposed exclusion of the peninsula from the Gippsland harvest zone wouldn't have happened without your support, so again thank you,” he said. The Victorian Commercial Kangaroo Harvest Program is the world's largest legal commercial slaughter of wildlife.
It permits eastern grey and western grey kangaroos to be killed on private land and on specified areas of public land. The new “exclusion zone” where kangaroos cannot be commercially harvested has been extended to include central Melbourne, outer suburbs and urban growth corridors, the Mornington Peninsula, the Dandenongs, and the western grasslands. The plan is administered by the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action, which states that its aim is to ensure that commercial kangaroo harvesting in ecologically sustainable and conducted “according to animal welfare standards”. To view the plan, go to dcceew.gov.au/environment/wildlife-trade/comment/vic-kangarooharvest-management-plan-2024-28#daff-pagemain Liz Bell
Picture: Yanni
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Southern Peninsula News
22 November 2023
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