Marine Debris

HELPING HAND TO HARBOUR:

Macquarie Harbour Shoreline Clean-up 2018

Over five days in April, 168 volunteers from the community, salmon industry, Parks & Wildlife Service and Cradle Coast Authority NRM, came together to target 36 shoreline locations at Macquarie Harbour to tackle marine debris.

The clean-up was coordinated by the Macquarie Harbour Steering Committee with funding from the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program.

This year’s data was calculated by counting everything in two representative bags from each site and then multiplying the number of bags of debris collected. The results reflected the commitment of every volunteer towards cleaning the Harbour with over 30,000 pieces of rubbish collected, filling three 15m 3 skip bins.

“A clean-up of this scale wouldn’t be possible without different industries and community groups coming together, focused on improving the health of this important marine environment,” Anna Wind, Cradle Coast Authority NRM’s Coastal Coordinator said.

“Everywhere you looked there were examples of team work.”

Throughout the clean-up, Tassal recognised the tremendous efforts from all the volunteers involved and acknowledged while debris associated with aquaculture only represented around 19% of what was collected, the industry needs to play its part to maintain continuous improvement with a zero-debris focus. “We are dedicated to reducing marine debris in Macquarie Harbour, as with all areas where we operate, and will be continually performing more regular clean-ups internally throughout the year to hopefully eliminate the need for bigger, annual clean-ups,” Don McIntyre, Tassal Western Zone Senior Manager said.

TOP: Active Strahan and Conservation Volunteers Australia at Meredith Street boat ramp.

BOTTOM: Collecting debris in rafts on the King River. Photos courtesy of Cradle Coast Authority NRM.

TOP: Active Strahan and Conservation Volunteers Australia at Meredith Street boat ramp displaying the bottles and cans they collected.

MIDDLE: Volunteers from Tassal and Petuna sorting and counting debris. BOTTOM: Cradle Coast Authority’s NRM team Photos courtesy of Cradle Coast Authority NRM.

Around 45m 3 of rubbish was removed (three skip bins full), plus 5m 3 of recyclable drink containers and 9m 3 of recyclable rope

1392 cans, 1250 glass bottles and 2434 plastic bottles were collected. 41% of the rubbish was from domestic or recreational sources.

410 bags of rubbish were removed, as well as 491 other pieces too big for bags. All together, there were over 30,000 pieces of rubbish.

1020kg of rope and 855m of polypipe were salvaged for recycling. 19% of the bagged rubbish was from commercial sources.

Other debris found included 56 tyres, 26 drums, and over 200 gloves, shoes and hats.

Breakdown of sources:

• 19% attributed to commercial operations (aquaculture and other)

• 41% attributed to domestic/recreational

• 40% from unknown sources.

CURRENT WINTER 201827

Marine Debris Hotline

The Marine Debris hotline allows the public to report any debris found on shorelines. This information is relayed to the company corresponding with the adopted shoreline, which collects the debris and responsibly disposes of it.

Tassal, in collaboration with the Tasmanian Seafood Industry Council and other salmon companies, are working to develop a smartphone app, as an extension of the hotline. The app would allow users to take a photo of the reported debris while increasing location accuracy through the smartphone GPS system

You can report any marine debris found by ringing 1300 706 973

Marine Debris in Charlotte’s Cove

Following last year’s successful cleanup,the D’Entrecasteaux and HuonCollaboration conducted a communitymarine debris clean-up at Charlotte’sCove during May.

More than 50 volunteers from thecommunity braved the Tassie chill toparticipate. The majority of rubbishcollected on the day included land-basedsources, although sea-based debris was collected also. During May, all Tasmaniansalmon companies focused on tacklingmarine debris in the Huon, Bruny andChannel areas, contributing to the biggerpicture of a collaborative effort to cleanupour coastline.

The D’Entrecasteaux and HuonCollaboration is hosted by NRM Southand supported through funding fromthe Australian Government’s National Landcare Program, the Derwent Estuary Program, Tassal, Huon Aquaculture, Huon Valley and Kingborough Councils, and TasWater. Following the storms in early May, the D’Entrecasteaux and Huon Collaboration’s Alonnah clean-up day was postponed due to unforeseen conditions. Make sure to visit www.nrmsouth.org.au and follow their Facebook page to stay updated on the August 18 th marine debris clean-up.

Community volunteers came together to clean up Charlotte’s Cove. Photo courtesy of NRM South.

Tassal and pakana partner to tackle marine debris

Tassal has partnered with pakana Land Management Services, a not-for-profit social enterprise, to perform clean-ups on a weekly basis.

pakana, meaning ‘Aboriginal Tasmanian,’ provides work and training for Aboriginal people in natural resource management, agriculture and other industry sectors. Community work pakana undertakes includes landscaping, nursery work and weed spraying throughout the entire state. By partnering with pakana, Tassal aims to achieve not only positive environmental outcomes but also employment opportunities. To date, 13 pakana participants have gone on to full-time employment, with two working with Parks & Wildlife.

John Eastern, Manager at pakana Services told Current the marine debris work undertaken with Tassal has been a rewarding and enriching experience for the team.

“For pakana Services members, this has included developing pride in their work and an understanding of how the simplest of tasks (litter collection), can make such a large environmental difference in our country,” he said.

Based in Kingston, the cleaning crew of five will travel where they’re required every Friday and perform coastline clean-ups. The team regularly visits areas in Nubeena, Dover and Channel and helps to beautify and maintain cleanliness of our Tassie coastlines. To date, the crew has completed over 1000 hours of work collaboratively!

“Marine debris is, unfortunately, a complex but critical issue we must address,” Depha Miedecke, Senior Manager of Community Engagement said. “We have contracted pakana services to help us ensure we are looking after the environments we operate in, while working towards strategies to reduce industry-based debris.”

TOP: The pakana team taking a well earned break looking towards Wedge Island.MIDDLE: The pakana team from left to right: Mark West, James Mathews, Peter Robertson, Ricky Radford, Jayke Binns.BOTTOM: Some of the collected debris.

The pakana team has also undergone training with Bird Life Australia to ensure there’s no disruption to wildlife, while clean ups are occurring. The crew is now conscious of the breeding patterns of different species found in Tasmania and ensures clean ups respect our wildlife.

Since the pakana and Tassal marine debris partnership kicked off in 2017, there has been a decline in industry sourced debris in areas such as Nubeena.