The Australian Marine Debris Initiative is a network of communities, schools, industries, government agencies and individuals focused on reducing the amount of marine debris washing into our oceans.
On every beach around Australia you will find some form of marine debris, from litter left by visitors to international debris, to ghost nets or rubbish washed from far inland through stormwater drains.
The statistics are horrifying with the United Nationals' Regional Seas Program estimating more than 18,000 pieces of plastic in each square kilometre of ocean; and other research estimating more than 8 million tonnes of debris entering the world's oceans each year. The majority of this marine debris is plastic, which due to its chemical makeup is a long lasting material. Plastics, once released into the environment, never biodegrade, instead photodegrading breaking into smaller and smaller pieces of the original item, forever remaining in the environment.
The Australian Marine Debris Initiative is a way that everyone can become involved in both the removal of marine debris and finding solutions to stop the flow of rubbish into our oceans.
Our annual west coast event is fast approaching and it’s shaping up to be another really successful campaign for Tangaroa Blue Foundation!! For those of you who missed the official WA Beach Clean-Up report for 2020, here is a snapshot of the key successes. We hope to increase our impact this year and keep building on these numbers. Thank you to everyone who has participated in this event so far and for your interest again this year.
After cancellation in 2020 due to COVID everyone was looking forward to the 2021 Mapoon trip going ahead with much anticipation. This did not proceed as expected, however, as only days before the team were set to leave, Townsville and Brisbane went into lockdown. This resulted in several of our volunteers and our Townsville coordinator, Kara-Mae, having to withdraw. Fortunately Jules stepped up and slotted into the co-coordinator spot at extremely short notice, and with the a-ok from the Mapoon community that we could head north, we were on our merry way!
Read more “Gee it’s was good to be back… but so many plastic bottles and foam floats!”
Healthy Water Regional Report Cards outline the condition of freshwater, estuarine, inshore and offshore marine ecosystems in their region, and report regionally on social, cultural and economic health and stewardship. For the first time ever, data from the Australian Marine Debris Initiative (AMDI) Database and the ReefClean program has been included in the annual Regional Report Cards and we’re super excited to see the results!
Read more “AMDI and ReefClean Data Included in Healthy Water Regional Report Cards”
Over the 2021 Easter break, Year 11 and 12 Mackay Christian College Youth Ambassadors set out on the SV Whitehaven vessel to explore Goldsmith Island, focusing on mangrove ecosystems in connection to their environmental interests and studies. They were joined by Wildmob/Silkwood School Youth Ambassador alumni, who assisted as mentors on this conservation project.
Read more “Youth-Led Mangrove Conservation in the Great Barrier Reef”
If you’ve volunteered with us before or are interested in joining us at future events, we invite you to register on our Volunteer Database. This Database will help us connect you to events happening in your region. Join the Database.
