ADEWHA Marine Debris C&R Consulting ReportIMPACTS OF PLASTIC DEBRIS ON AUSTRALIAN MARINE WILDLIFEC&R Consulting for The Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the ArtsDate: 19th June 2009

The Darwin Harbour Cleanup (DHCU) is an annual event organised by the Northern Territory Seafood Council and OceanWatch Australia's SeaNet Program through funding from the Australian Government's Caring for our Country and Territory Natural Resource Management's Coastcare Program.The clean-up is a combined effort involving volunteers, and a variety of community, business and government organisations lending expertise, facilities and equipment to what amounts to a major logistical task on the day. The cleanup is coordinated by the Northern Territory SeaNet Officer Lyn Lambeth.This year's Darwin Harbour Clean-Up provided an opportunity to assess changes in levels of packaging items in and around the harbour following the introduction of two initiatives by the Northern Territory Government aimed at reducing the flow of packaging items into the environment. A container deposit scheme (CDS) began operating in the Northern Territory on 3rd January 2012. The scheme offers a 10c refund on eligible containers. These include; plastic drink bottles used for juice, water, soft drink, sports drinks, iced tea and vitamin drinks Cardboard drink cartons used for flavoured milk and juice Aluminium cans used for beer and soft drink Glass stubbies used for beer and pre mixed alcoholic drinks.The NT Government also introduced a territory-wide ban on plastic shopping bags which came into effect in September 2011.

Volunteers collected and reported more than 67,000 litter items from around Townsville and Magnetic Island, from 2008 to 2017. The items here are regularly reported through the Tangaroa Blue Foundation’s Australian Marine Debris Initiative Database.Thankyou to those who lent a hand at any one of the clean up events, to those who pick up rubbish even when it isnt theirs, and to everyone striving to reduce their waste through daily steps. Good work to you all!This infographic was created by Reef Check Australia by Lolo TR with the following partners: National Landcare Programme, Townsville City Council, NQ Dry Tropics NRM, Tangaroa Blue, Conservation Volunteers Australia and Reef Check Australia.

In 2007 TBF launched the Far North Queensland Marine Debris Project (FNQMDP) with an aim of identifying the types of debris that is impacting the region, then to find ways of reducing those items from ending up in the ocean. Over 3,000 TBF volunteers have collected more than 500,000 items of rubbish from beaches around Australia and New Zealand since 2004. In its fifth year of the Australian Marine Debris Project, data on what is making up the debris and where it is coming from is helping to create strategies to reduce the amount of rubbish in local waters.

The Microplastics and Port Phillip Bay citizen science project, led by Sustainability Victoria in partnership with EPA Victoria and Melbourne Water engaged volunteers and scientists in a whole-of-catchment collaborative research project to better understand the sources and impacts of microplastics in Port Phillip Bay. More information is available here: https://bit.ly/2qVT7r9

Tangaroa Blue Ocean Care Society (TBOCS) is a non-profit organisation registered on the Department of Environment's Register of Environmental Organisations.In 2004 TBOCS founded the South West Marine Debris Project (SWMDP) to focus on the issue of marine debris in the south west region of Western Australia. The aim of the project is to find ways of reducing the amount of marine debris making its way into our oceans and impacting marine life.In 2010 TBOCS launched the Victorian Marine Debris Project with the support of Surfrider Foundation Australia and with funding from a Caring for our Country Grant. The aim of the project was to remove debris, identify those items impacting the Victorian coastline, contributing to the National Marine Debris Database and engage communities into a national marine debris project.Over 5,000 TBOCS volunteers have collected more than 650,000 items of rubbish from beaches around Australia and New Zealand since 2004. In its seventh year of the Australian Marine Debris Initiative, data on what is making up the debris and where it is coming from is helping to create strategies to reduce the amount of rubbish in local waters.In every square mile of ocean it is estimated that there are over 46,000 pieces of plastic, resulting in the deaths of more than 1 million seabirds and 100,000 marine animals every year. This includes 20 Australian endangered animals, including sharks, turtles and marine mammals.Impacts of marine debris on wildlife include entanglement that can cause restricted mobility, drowning, starvation, smothering and wounding, which in turn leads to infections, amputation of limbs and death. Debris may also be confused with prey species and ingested by marine wildlife, causing physical blockage in the digestive system and leading to internal injuries and starvation.

Editable flyer for the 2018 WA Marine Debris Project event - October 2018

In 2017 over 1556 volunteers turned out on beaches across Western Australia to contribute to the 13th Annual West Australian Beach Clean-Up, hosted by Tangaroa Blue Foundation with support from Keep Australia Beautiful WA. Across the state over 137 beaches and stretches of coastline were cleaned up, from easy to accessmetropolitan beaches to remote locations like Dirk Hartog Island and Eyre Bird Observatory. Beautiful warm weather in the south west made for perfect conditions to be out on the beaches giving them a spring clean.This report was supported by funding from the Western Australian NRM Program.

This year just under 1,800 volunteers came together across 138 beach locations to remove more than 88,880 items of rubbish from our coastline as part of the 2016 West Australian Beach Clean-up. Some of the more interesting finds made around the state include half a canoe found near the Margaret River mouth, a couch found in the dunes at Leighton Beach, a brand-new selfie stick picked up on remote Deepdene Beach, black plastic resin pellets found along the North Fremantle foreshore of the Swan River, and over 500 straws found during a clean-up on the Jindalee foreshore. Big sections of rope have been found washed up along the more remote sections of coastline in the south west, and many rope fragments and microplastics have been found littering the beaches.The West Australian Beach Clean-up received funding from the West Australian Government’s State NRM Program, supported by Royalties for Regions. Tangaroa Blue Foundation would also like to thank Keep Australia Beautiful WA, WA Department of Fisheries, Department of Parks and Wildlife and local government authorities around the state, as well as all the amazing volunteers for their ongoing support for this annual event.

SummaryA mild winter this year meant a little less debris encountered on the beach compared to 2014. There were exceptions with hotspots being encountered in some places and debris levels remaining high in others. The Cocos Islands, Broome Town Beach and Mindarie Marina seawall were among the exceptions.Throughout the year a number of individuals and organisations have continued being involved in cleaning beaches and collecting data. Data collected throughout the year together with the snapshot of data provided during the October West Australian Beach Clean-up builds up a knowledge base about marine debris in WA. The value of ongoing clean-up activities is that it provides data and information to do something about the problem, and there is in effect a watch on WA beaches which improves the chances of early spotting and reporting of hazardous items, items presenting quarantine issues and other incidents such as the search for debris from missing flight MH370.In this report we discuss how to give some focus on where we direct our activities and what those activities can be. One way of doing this is to encourage groups to form at a local or regional level to identify achievable marine debris objectives and develop responses. We are encouraging participation from community members and organisations, business, local government and NRM bodies. Some organisations are currently at this stage and our objective is to continue to support them while also assisting new groups wanting to develop a focus to their activities.In the next section we provide a wrap up of this year’s October West Australian Beach Clean-up followed by a discussion of developing a regional focus on marine debris. Data from each NRM region is then analysed to provide a broad picture of debris types, quantities, sources and possible areas for activity. The report then provides some information on source reduction plans and concludes with an update on the watch for items from missing flight MH370.

2014 marked the tenth anniversary of the West Australian Beach Clean-Up event. This annual report has been prepared as a special edition: commemorating the efforts of the WA community and Tangaroa Blue Foundation over the past ten years; as well as analysing a decade of marine debris data to help inform forward planning for the Australian Marine Debris Initiative (AMDI) in Western Australia.We would like to thank Coastwest and Keep Australia Beautiful Council - WA for their continued support for the WA Beach Clean-Up along with the thousands of volunteers and partners who have participated in this event, helping to address the marine debris issue in Western Australia.

Executive SummaryStorms, swells and erosion delivered large quantities of plastic debris onto Western Australian beaches during 2013. The message is clear - there is a large quantity of plastic polluting the oceans and there is a large quantity of plastic buried and embedded within the coastal system. Most of this plastic is fragmented. The long term average proportion of plastic remnants in WA clean-ups is 46%. Fishing items follow with 9%. Plastic fragments are therefore the main legacy of growing levels of plastics entering the ocean over the decades since mid-last century. Every day plastic items together with fishing items continue to be discharged into the system. Curbing this discharge is not hard in the practical sense, but it is hard in the realm of changing behaviour and overcoming complacency and inertia s report we begin with an update on several source reduction issues where these challenges are evident. The WA Beach Clean-up data summary looks at the levels of plastic fragments entering the system this year together with clean-up data from all sites. Following this in the section on the South West Marine Debris Project, data from monitoring sites is compared to data from less frequently cleaned sites along the Capes coast to explore the impact of long term clean-ups on local sites.We would like to acknowledge our major project partners Coastwest, Keep Australia Beautiful Council – WA, The Department of Fisheries and the South West Catchments Council for their continued support of this event. Finally a big thanks to all involved for your enthusiasm, generosity and persistence.

The 2012 West Australian Beach Clean Up Report highlights the efforts of volunteers and partners during the annual WA Beach Clean Up held over the weekend of October 2012. See how marine debris was on your beach!

Tangaroa Blue Foundation's main objective for 2011 has been to consolidate the annual WA Beach Cleanup into a state-wide event. This has been achieved with cleanup activity occurring in each coastal region from the south coast through to the Kimberley coast and out to the Cocos Keeling and Christmas Islands.About 50 organisations and over 1200 volunteers combined their energies to produce this successful outcome. South West Marine Debris Project monthly monitoring activities have also continued along the Capes coast in 2011 with two additional sites - Yeagarup on the western south coast and Dalyellup Beach near Bunbury being added to the programme. Additional cleanups at Deepdene and Boranup were also funded during the year and valuable data was obtained for these targeted sites.This year's annual WA Beach Cleanup produced 75,832 items of debris. Seventy seven percent of these were plastic and the most numerous item was remnant bits and pieces of plastic. Our revamped cleanup signature shows 47% of items falling into the "remnants and breakage" category, 28% into "packaging" and 13% into "consumer articles". In this report we are introducing a second set of categories which provide an indication of the type of activity which generated the marine debris being found within a site, area or region. By this measure, in this year's cleanup, "individual consumption", which includes articles and packaging related to individual consumption of food, drink and cigarettes, generated 34% of the items collected. "Plastic remnant accumulation" (the legacy of past activities) also accounted for 34% while "commercial fishing" generated 16% and "recreational fishing" and "individual activities" generated 6% each. Averaged over the whole state our litter and local source index shows 46% of items were from local origins while the remaining 54% had a non local origin such as shipping and oceanic circulation.

2010 South West Beach Clean Up - Individual Registration FormJoin us for the 6th Annual South West Beach Clean Up and help keep our beaches and oceans clean! This year's event will be held over the weekend of October 9th & 10th and cover beaches from Geraldton to Albany in Western Australia.Volunteers are invited to register as an individual or as a group and nominate a beach or stretch of coastline they will clean up over the clean up weekend. All materials, volunteer insurance and logistical support will be provided, all we need is lots of energy and many hands to help remove marine debris from the coast.Since the South West Marine Debris Project started in 2004, volunteers have helped remove over 350,000 pieces of marine debris from south west beaches, helping to protect marine life and seabirds and the local marine environment.

2010 South West Beach Clean Up - Group Registration FormJoin us for the 6th Annual South West Beach Clean Up and help keep our beaches and oceans clean! This year's event will be held over the weekend of October 9th & 10th and cover beaches from Geraldton to Albany in Western Australia.Volunteers are invited to register as an individual or as a group and nominate a beach or stretch of coastline they will clean up over the clean up weekend. All materials, volunteer insurance and logistical support will be provided, all we need is lots of energy and many hands to help remove marine debris from the coast.Since the South West Marine Debris Project started in 2004, volunteers have helped remove over 350,000 pieces of marine debris from south west beaches, helping to protect marine life and seabirds and the local marine environment.

Saturday January 30th. 8.30 am. This morning, a dedicated group of sixteen people gathered together to clean up the area around the Jurien Bay Marina. This followed a meeting last November in which a Coast Care Group was formed to help look after the beach and adjoining areas each side of town. Penny Keenan from the West Midlands Group, associated with NACC, had visited Jurien Bay and enlisted the support of the Progress and Tourism Association to set up the Coast Care Group. This report details the event that took place.

2009 South West Marine Debris Project (South West Australia) Technical ReportWritten by Wally Smith & Heidi TaylorThank you to the following government agencies and organisations for funding and support, enabling us to continue the South West Marine Debris Project: Keep Australia Beautiful (WA), South West Catchments Council, Government of WA, the Australian Government and CoastWest.