Eight intrepid people traveled up north to clean the remote west side beach of Mapoon in Cape York for the 2014 Mapoon Clean-up. It was a three-day journey up to see sights, five hard working days for the clean-up, and another three-day journey back to Cairns. Tangaroa Blue with Conservation Volunteers Australia and support from the Mapoon Land and Sea Rangers smashed out cleaning 7.5km of beach and getting a whopping 3 tonnes of marine debris.
From morning to sundown they persevered to pick up, sort, and catalog debris. Their efforts redirected seven large silo bags of plastics and 41 rubbish size bags of glass and metal for recycling. They even processed thousands of clear plastic bottles so they can be made into new Bionic Yarn that will be made into denim.
It wasn’t all hard work. The participants were rewarded with lots of wildlife sightings such as crocodiles, eagles, shorebirds, dolphins, and the biggest highlight was releasing hatchling flatback turtles into the ocean with the Rangers! It was a great reminder why Tangaroa Blue is cleaning up Australia’s beaches. They also helped out a local fisherman who lost his thongs (I’m sure they be found on another clean-up somewhere) to find two the same size, but not matching, thongs from the 5,812 in the pile.
Another fruitful effort coordinated by Tangaroa Blue that could not have been successful without the help of Mapoon Land and Sea Rangers, Conservation Volunteers Australia, MY Pathways and Weipa Transfer Station. Thank you all!
Published by