Mogo Local Aboriginal Land Council join forces with Eurobodalla Marine Debris Working Group to tackle marine debris in Eurobodalla.
The Mogo Local Aboriginal Land Council’s Indigenous rangers participated in a training day on the Tomaga River last week with Eurobodalla’s marine debris working group.
The rangers collected eight large bags of marine debris from the mangrove nursery and saltmarsh areas east of the Tomaga Bridge. All the debris was sorted and the data loaded onto the Australian Marine Debris Database.
Photo: Mogo’s Indigenous Rangers collected eight bags of marine debris from the Tomaga River mangroves and saltmarshes last week. Pictured (l-r) at the end of a hard day are Malachy Leslie, Tristan Nye, James Nye-Potts, Adam Nye, Bernadette Davis, Adam McCarron, Stephen Stewart, Tayla Nye, Jake Chatfield and Sherrie Nye.
Eurobodalla Council’s environmental education officer Bernadette Davis, who coordinates the marine debris group, says this information can now be used to see where the debris is coming from and to find solutions tailored to specific localities.
“Identifying a recurrent item of debris and the source means we can aim to stop it becoming an issue in the first place,” she said.
“The rangers found a lot of wind-blown plastic items like plastic supermarket bags and takeaway food containers, as well as glass bottles and plastic drink bottles.”
Ms Davis said it was fantastic to work with such a motivated group who are passionate about looking after their Country.
The Indigenous rangers plan to conduct clean-ups at this site on a regular basis and pass on their new-found knowledge to other members of their community.
For more information or to get involved, visit www.esc.nsw.gov.au and search marine debris working group.
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