Year 9 students from Ballarat Clarendon College spend a whole term on King Island as part of their school year, and are involved in community and outdoor activites during this time. This year students have been collecting data for the Australian Marine Debris Database when out on their hikes around the island, and the amount of marine debris they are finding on this small island located between Victoria and Tasmania has been astounding!
In one event in August we collected approximately 60kg, with a total of 111kg from the whole term – not a bad effort considering we were on an extended hike carrrying all their gear as well! A not so fantastic, but amazing for the us to witness, was a moment where we found a seal on the beach tangled in nylon rope. It really hit home for a lot of us and doubt we’ll ever walk past rubbish again!
We have picked up as much as possible and noticed a lot of debris that may have originated from foreign shores including Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, Dubai, South Africa, Argentina and Brazil.
Published by