The Santa Monica Boys have been busy again. This month we covered a different stretch of beach, covering the 3.5 km from Aireys Inlet to Moggs Creek. We are now monitoring the coast from Aireys Inlet to Grassy Creek – about 8.5km, alternating which half of it we cover each month. Next month we’ll be back to the Moggs to Grassy section.
We got some interesting results. The mouth of the Painkalac Estuary at Aireys Inlet alone had a couple of hundred tiny pieces of plastic, most smaller than a 5 cent piece. The beach sections were pretty clean apart from where there is regular beach access. Note that there were a lot less cigarette butts this time because we didn’t take in Archway Beach, where tourist and backpacker buses stop for a break on their Ocean Road tours. Last time we found about 250 butts at this beach access alone. Students are planning to contact the Shire about this with some data and lobby them to provide bins for smokers.
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