On Wednesday 15th June, 2011 students from the Bloomfield River School joined local community members, Tangaroa Blue and the Great Barrier Reef Park Authority for a clean up at their local beach of Weary Bay. The students were presented with a Beach Clean Up Kit which included all the materials they will need to adopt their local beach including bags, gloves, sharps containers, sunscreen, a first aid kit and data collection sheets and identification manuals.
Then off the the beach we went! Students spent one hour and covered 3.5km of beach at Weary Bay where they removed 11.5 bags of debris weighing a total of 56kgs. To contribute to the Australian Marine Debris Database the students then anaylised and collected data on the contents of 2 of the bags where they counted 227 items which included 53 beer cans, 20 bits of broken glass, 11 lids and bottletops, 12 plastic drink bottles, 39 pieces of polystyrene foam, 50m of fishing line, 2 cigarette lighters and 1 car tyre!
The local community had participated in a beach clean up just over 2 weeks ago, showing the amount of debris that washes up continually and is left on the beach in the region.
Well done to all the students for their efforts!
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