One of the largest ever people‐powered clean‐ups of the Great Barrier Reef began last week, with young and old uniting to make a difference.
The Great Barrier Reef Clean‐up is part of the 5‐year ReefClean project, which focuses on both the removal and prevention of marine debris impacting our iconic reef. Over the weekend of October 5th & 6th, volunteers joined one of the five Great Barrier Reef Clean‐up launch events that took place across the Wet Tropics, Burdekin, Mackay Whitsundays, Fitzroy and Burnett Mary NRM Regions, with an additional event happening later in October on Badu Island in the Torres Strait.
“Local communities and our partners are the lifeblood of the ReefClean project. We’re delighted that so many showed their love for the reef this weekend and turned out to protect the coastline and islands by removing almost 3 tonnes of rubbish from our shores.” says Tangaroa Blue’s Managing Director, Heidi Taylor.
“These clean‐ups immediately improve the health of the local environment and protect our precious species like Turtles, Dugong and Dolphins from eating and getting caught up in marine debris.
“The clean‐ups also deliver vital data for the Australian Marine Debris Initiative Database, which helps identify the sources of where all this rubbish is coming from. Once we’ve crunched the data, we can work with communities to reduce the rubbish at the source in order to better protect the reef in the future.”
The Great Barrier Reef Clean‐up series runs throughout October, and people who are keen to run adopt a site and register their own clean‐up events can register with ReefClean by clicking below, and will receive a resource pack to support their efforts.
ReefClean is funded by the Australian Government’s Reef Trust and delivered by Tangaroa Blue Foundation, Conservation Volunteers Australia, AUSMAP, Capricornia Catchments, Eco Barge Clean Seas, OceanWatch Australia, Reef Check Australia and South Cape York Catchments.
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