Unload and Cleanup

After a magical week exploring the beaches of South Western Tasmania the crews disembarked from the Velocity at Southport and The Breaksea at Dover so the skippers could get back to sea to continue fishing. The Wilsons Voyager made its way to Hobart to be greeted by an enthusiastic crew of friends and family. The kind folks at Tas Trans unloaded the two tonnes of debris and resettled it at the South Hobart Recovery Tip Shop.

The final tally of 80694 items picked up of the beach, then counted and sorted is a testament to a very committed team of volunteers, skippers and dingy drivers. For such a small team the output and diligence of the beachcombers was remarkable, and it was a pleasure to spend a week in the wilderness giving something back to our remarkable home state.

A big thanks to Patagonia and Pennicott Wilderness Journeys for their ongoing financial support and all of our other sponsors including those who supported our Pozible crowd funding campaign we cannot continue this important work without you.

If we all do the simple act of picking up a rubbish from the ground or water when we see it then we will go a long way to reducing the impact of marine debris on our seas and all the animals that live in it.

Final blog from Pat

Final post from Pat Spiers.

Well, I'm back in the "big smoke" (Sydney) after a whirlwind 9 days in Tassie and my friends are saying things like,

"Wow, you look really tired and hairy Pat!" (It was a very busy time and there was no time to shave on the trip)

also

"You look so happy but why are you covered in scabs?" (The Tasmanian bush is really scratchy and I spent a large part of the week burrowing under spiky bushes to retrieve rubbish)

and

"Did you really pick up that many little bits or rope and plastic in those wild places? I thought they would be pristine and untouched!?"

Well, yes, we did pick up all that rubbish and as far as I know the rubbish was all moved on to be re-used, recycled or disposed of today:

- The bait saver baskets in decent condition were offered to fisherman for re-use

- The good rope was re-used for fishing and art

- The bottles plastic pieces, and aluminium cans were recycled

- The large nets and steel buoys were taken away for interesting garden decorations

- Some of the remaining rubbish went to the tip

One of the things that sticks in my mind was THE ROPE, most of the bits and pieces or rope had been worked on by someone, eg they had been knotted or spliced and then cut and THROWN OVERBOARD. But by who?

I think all Tassie fishermen are pretty good with obeying the "Stow it - don't throw it" rule. so that means we are talking about the crews on the big industrial sized boats that fish in deeper waters, often with the trawl nets...

To be continued... got to go to bed, shattered.

schools

Schools report, by Pat Spiers

Day 8: Saturday 12 March.

Last night we steamed south after the rubbish count and anchored in North Stephens bay.

Today would be taken up by the return voyage but first we had to retrieve the rubbish we had previously stashed down the southern end of Stephens beach way back on the 7^th.

Once again It was quite a mission getting the heavily laden dinghies in and out through the waves.

The deck of the Wilson's voyager is now completely covered in garbage (tied down of course). 3 gigantic crane bags of ropes dominate the space. All up we have close to three tons of rubbish.

Have a look at this photo of some of the recording sheets filled in every night this week.

The process worked best when one person was the count recorder, whose job was to write down all the sub-totals that were called out by the rest of the team as they sorted through the day's rubbish.

They would then add all the sub-totals up to get our daily totals.

As you can see I have not been telling you making all this up! Most of the beaches we visited were heavily affected by small plastic pieces.

But lets look at what we have achieved over the whole week.

We have just added up all our counts collected 80 694 pieces of rubbish over the last week – a new record!

Ula in particular was stoked with this result.

We had a long day of steaming ahead of us so we set off at about 10.30 am.

It was great to watch the gigantic cliffs of southwest cape slide past.

We took a quick detour to hook a big fat stripy trumpeter for our dinner and steamed on straight through the narrow gap south of Maatsuyker island, hooked around Southeast cape and then anchored in beautiful Recherche bay for the final garbage count.

While we counted the cooks and their assistants started preparing the ultimate feast from the fish and all the bits and pieces of food that had been knocking around in the eskies all week.

After a big party we all went to bed feeling satisfied knowing that we had left behind some very, very clean beaches in the Tasmanian world heritage area.

I'll say it again: we collected 80 694 pieces of rubbish over the last week – a massive effort!

I feel like we have made a big difference for now, but it is just one of many actions that need to be taken for our wild oceans and beaches to become cleaner places.

Some people might ask me questions such as:

"But Pat, what about the rubbish still out there buried under the sand?"

and

"What about the rubbish floating around in the ocean that soon will wash upon the same beaches?"

and even

"Isn't the area is in a National park and doesn't that mean that it is the rangers job to look after the beaches?"

Well, yes, marine debris is a big, complex problem and it would be easy to see this job as being hopeless or too hard when people ask questions like these.

But it is something we cannot ignore because we are all custodians of our wild places and our oceans.

 (a custodian is a keeper or guardian of a place).

As custodians we have to start somewhere and we have to be smart about what we actually do to help.

(That's why we have been recording all the rubbish types collected so we can identify things that can change and pass that information on to the decision makers and leaders of our land.)

Have you ever read "The Lorax" by Dr Seuss? I hope so because I am going to end with the last words of the Once-ler,

"Now that you're here, The word of the Lorax seems perfectly clear.

UNLESS someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better, it's not"

I have to rush back into everyday life now (back to school tomorrow) I'd like to say thanks to the following people and organisations for their efforts and support:

Andrew Hughes

Matt Dell

Tom Brown, Dave Wyatt, Darren Clark

Wildcare Tasmania

The Bookend trust

Australian Science teachers association

Patagonia

Day 8 - 10 O'Clock Bay to Recherche Bay

Saturday 12 March

Guest Blogger: Wes

After a week of head down bum up hunched over picking up thousands of pieces of rubbish on the beach, there was no shortage of sore backs and stiff necks amongst the cleanup team on the morning of day 8. The sight of a few waves breaking on the beach and the fact that we needed to pick up the bags of rubbish we left behind that needed to be picked up was enough motivation for dinghies to be launched, boards to be waxed and wetsuits to be pulled on for the last chance to get a wave or get some of the Southwest national park's sand between your toes for the lat time before we headed home.

The daily rubbish count is a massive cooperative effort for all involved in the clean up but it is probably the least looked forward to part of the day as it is really hard work. As the tally added up, cleanup team leader Matt Dell decided, after a bit of quick mental arithmetic, that it looked as though this year's final tally would break the record set on last year's cleanup.

This created a bit of a buzz which helped get the last of the plastics counted and Matt's hunch turned out to be spot on. The record was broken.

We steamed home with light winds and calm seas that allowed some of the crew to grab 40 winks, catch a couple of Stripey Trumpeter off southwest cape or sit with a Moo Brew or Gillespie's ginger beer and watch the albatross swooping around the boat.

The cleanup vessels then met up in Recherche Bay to raft up and reflect on a week that passed in the blink of an eye. The 80694 items were duly stowed on the Wilsons Voyager for their last journey on the high seas, up to the dock in Hobart where they will be transported to the Resource Tip shop in South Hobart

Day 7 photos

Day 7 blog

Day 7. Friday 11 March.

Guest blogger: Alecia

Mulcahy Bay

What started out as a nice day quickly disappeared into another session of head-down  bum-up. It is amazing that what appears to be a clean beach quickly joins the filthy ranks of small plastics (11,550) and bait saver (173) littered expanses.
Apparently the increase in Bait savers today can partly be attributed to a resident seal that appears to have learnt how to remove the bait saver in the Cray pot, stick his head in and grab the bait saver to eat the fish, redefining take away eating on the west coast.

Lowlights today included finding small toy soldiers and a horse, a button and two international guests, a Japanese Suntory whisky bottle with whisky inside which was quickly sampled on beach and a Spanish laundry detergent bottle.

The highlight was a random bush walker who literally appeared out of the scrub and couldn't have been happier to see us, we resupplied him with some fresh fruit and snacks and a new EPIRB and off he set for the next part of his multi part adventure 14 days into about four weeks of walking.  He was amazed to see us cleaning beaches and almost thought we were a mirage, just as we were surprised to see him appear. Two totally different ways to appreciate the wild southwest coast of Tasmania complementing each other and leaving the area for all to enjoy.

Schools report - by Pat Spiers

Hi everyone,

We left the sheltered waters of the gulch not long after dawn bound for Mulcahy beach.
Everyone was already suited up ready for a wet surf landing and moments after the anchors splashed into the water we were piling into the dinghies and setting off.

Wes, Dave and Harry are real masters in the art of handling overladen small boats in the waves.

The trick when coming in is to ride the back of a wave, just behind the white water, that and have a big motor in good condition!

When leaving the beach and heading out the trick is to be observant and patient, waiting for a small set of waves. Then go for it and be confident in your steering decisions. Several times it seemed like we were about to receive a monster wave into the boat and then with a slight steering movement we would be skimming over the shoulder and gliding down into a trough.

The beach was a spectacular wild place.
First I cleaned the around the mouth of a large creek on the southern end and saw plenty of animal tracks including devils.

Then we walked all the way to the other end of the beach and did our emu bob all the way back. The beach was rich in bait saver baskets, bait box straps and, you guessed it, lots of small plastics. I had a creepy moment when I picked up a small green chunk of plastic and had a closer look – it was the head of a crazy clown!

Later on Masaaki and I started up the first ever Mulcahy beach Sumo wrestling tournament:

Here are the results:

1. Masaake beat Pat (only because I was worried about falling onto my camera OK?)
2. Big Wes beat Masaake
3. Big Wes beat Gerhard
4. Spikey beat Big Wes (Spikey was the grant master! Hooray for Spikes)

Masaaki and I also started a new sport! "Storm bight cliff sand running"
A storm bight is a sandy cliff created by a strong rip-tide created by strong storm waves.
The sand cliff was about 2 meters high and when you run along the top edge it collapses just behind you, you have to run very quickly and smoothly or you tumble down the bank in a minor avalanche of sand.
This was great fun but the storm bank had only been created the day before and it was fully of plastic rubbish! So we made even more work for ourselves.

Despite all this we did 6 hours of hard cleaning up. When we finally got all the rubbish back to the Velocity we counted a total of 14,842 bits of rubbish, with 11,550 pieces of small plastic alone!

Finally we transferred all the rubbish to one of the other boats (Wilson's voyager)

See you soon everyone! We'll be home soon.

Pat

Day 7 photos, preview.

Looks like we will be back in Recherche bay Saturday night.

Day 6 pix

Day 6 blog

Day 6: Thursday 10th March 2016

Guest Blogger: Piece of garbage.

Hi guys, I am a plastic water bottle!

I was made from oil and I had a brief life in somebody's backpack and then they dropped me IN PUBLIC in a beach carpark somewhere in western Australia!
I was gutted, but thought things would get better when a friendly dude put me in the bin, however the bin didn't have a lid and was kind of overloaded. A crow pulled me out and I blew into the water. I was all over the shop on the rebound!

I bumped around near the beach for a few days until an offshore wind carried me out into the Leeuwin current which took me on a very interesting journey down the coast and across the great Australian bight, along the way some playful Dolphins tossed me around but I toughed it out.
Then the current split and sent me south along the Tasmanian coast. Wild times.

Along the way I slowly filled with water and lost my labels. I think I saw a turtle swallow one of them, oops, good luck with that big fella!

One day a fierce westerly wind blew me up onto a stony beach, where I was pinned under a Huon pine log for about a year and I fully lost it in the sun! No joke, I lost the top part of my lid and I started to fall to pieces. I looked terrible too.
A winter storm blew me into the ferns behind the beach and my crackup continued, some of my flakes blew into a creek on the beach and made it back into the sea.  See ya kids!

But today the weirdest thing happened, A big guy in blues-brothers sunglasses called Lachy came along and wrenched me out of the ferns and shoved me into a bag with some shotgun shells, lots of stinking rope and some other bottles (one was even from Indo!) I needed a cheer up and I got it when Lachy got nailed by the jack-jumper ants that were living in the ferns. Oh how I laughed!!

Now I'm in a pile of common junk on the back deck of a boat with music blaring and stuff flying everywhere... Woah! Hang on, someone has put me into a bag with other bottles and we're being transferred to another boat.
I'm confused but hopeful for the future. Do I dare hope that things will improve? If I'm lucky I'll get recycled and get to live on as a fleece jacket or garden furniture. Wish me luck!

Thanks piece of garbage, what a great blog! Cheers and good luck for the future!

Schools report by Pat Spiers.

This morning the crew of the Velocity sneaked away at first light again! Those guys! As usual they wanted to investigate some possible surf spots on the way to today's cleanup location.

The other two boats followed an hour or so behind, heading north along the coast towards the wild beaches near Hobbs island.

There was a large sea rolling in from the Southern ocean and our boats felt very small as they climbed up and plunged down the swells while the dolphins and albatross played around us. I listened to music on my headphones and it

We finally anchored just east of Hobbs island. Lachy quickly put a fishing line in and got a bit cross when he could only catch Barracouta (his least favourite fish). We all got a wake-up on the whiteknuckle zodiac dinghy ride zooming across the waves of the bay to our first beach. "Green island main". The team has been to this small beach 4 times in the past and it is still very dirty. Ula had been telling us about this beach all week, she described how when they first visited and stepped ashore everyone was in shock when they saw the thousands and thousands of rubbish pieces threaded through the thick carpet of SLIMY ROTTING KELP that covers most of this beach.

I'm not going to pretend to be a tough guy here, it was really disgusting getting down close to the rancid kelp slop and picking out bits of rope and plastic. It was a sunny and warm and so the smell got worse and worse as the day went on. The slop was actually making a foul slimy squelching noise on it's own as it steadily decomposed. Yucko!

We hadn't come this far to be quitters, so we worked away for a few hours and pulled 18 stinking bags of rubbish off the beach. It actually looked much, much better.
I thought the funniest things were when Oscar found a number 2 (ie, a small plastic numeral) and Alecia found a plastic alien figurine with a weird horn.

We were relieved to get away from the beach and move one kilometre south to Duckhole beach which is another beach made of stones, however beneath almost every stone is a scrap of trawl rope. We clambered around on our hands and knees for a few more hours picking up rope and a large amount of shotgun shells. It was a much nicer beach except for the Jack Jumper ants that got Lachy and I when we were pulling bottles out of the bracken ferns behind the beach.

Once we had ferried all the garbage and people back to the boats we sailed North to a pretty little bay called the Gulch (Lat: 43 07.109 S   Long:145 42.004) Where we counted all the stinking rubbish from the day.
The team counted 13,229 pieces of small plastic alone from the first stinky beach alone. A massive effort!

After a 3 hour long count we slurped down some Abalone pasta dropped into a deep sleep after a very, very long day.

....and then the mosquitoes arrived..

See you soon,

Pat

Day 5

Day 5: Wednesday 9th March 2016

By Claire:

A pretty lazy start today for Team Clean, we sure had earned it!

A sleep in, some morning drizzle and a short boat trip into Hannets Inlet meant we didn't get onto the shore until just after midday. Hannets Inlet offered calm waters, and after an hour even a patch of blue sky!

We had a few small teams cleaning different areas, and we're pretty glad to say there was a lot of looking and not much finding today! Some small plastics in amongst the pebbly beaches and along the high tide line, small ropes, and a fair bit of plastic stuck in the bush behind the beach bank, but all together not too bad.

A total of five hours on the shore was enough to finish, and then the afternoon activities began: Pat had a crack at kite surfing in very marginal wind, there was just enough to get him going for the most important 10 seconds when he was zooming past the boat, but he soon pulled out after the winds got too sketchy. The surfers were also disappointed at the lack of evening swell.

We're now anchored off Whalers Point, watching dolphins round up schools of bait fish and sitting down to more of Masaki's super sushi.

Schools report by Pat Spiers:.

I got up at 6.30am (our normal wake-up time) but no-one was up! I wanted to make a cup of tea but that meant starting the generator and waking everyone up so I went back to bed. (Come to think of it, yesterday was a massive day, so a sleep-in was DEFINITELY in order!)

Later we woke (again) to a very windy day so we motored over to Hannets inlet to clean some beaches.

These beaches were very, very beautiful.
They have been cleaned by us before and it really showed.
All up we collected about 3000 pieces of rubbish.
Ula was disappointed that we didn?t find more, but I was happy because I think it shows that these beaches are getting cleaner and cleaner with every year that we visit.
(Harry says we collected over 8000 pieces of rubbish from the same beaches in 2012)

Every 50-200m there was a little creek flowing across the sand. As I approached I would stare at the beautiful scene but as I got closer and closer my super-garbage collector senses would tingle and I would start spotting all the extra debris that seem to get stuck up the back of these creeks. These areas really seem to act as a wind catchment for plastic and rope! Don't worry, I'm pretty sure I picked everything up that could be picked up (Remember, lots of the debris is buried in the sand)

The creeks were beautiful but my favourite spots were the "Marsupial lawn" areas, where the moss and grass mix together to make a tasty treat for larger native herbivores such as Wallabies. These areas were pretty clean, however there would usually be some plastic bags and bottles stuck in the ferns behind the lawn.

Just between a lawn and a creek Lachy found a cool frog. But no one could what type it was, can any of you help us identify it?

I made you a video showing what it was like collecting all the small plastic debris off the sand in a windy spot on Stephens beach a few days ago. I had to lower the quality to send it to you by satellite so I hope that's OK! Maybe this will give you an idea of how bad it can get.

Some of you have asked about the animals I have seen: So far I have seen little penguins, oystercatchers, pygmy possum, galaxia minnows, the mystery frog, dolphins, bats, seals, albatross, wedge-tailed and sea eagles, lots of insects and a couple of invasive species (Bumblebees and European wasps)

The last thing we did before anchoring for the night at Whalers point was back the "Velocity" right up to the cliffs to get some more fresh water. There was a waterfall at this spot where some clever fishermen had rigged up a drum to catch the water and a hose to carry it out to a boat, Ingenious! The only person who wasn't all that happy was poor old Harry who had to stand in the waterfall for 45 minutes.

See you soon everyone!

Pat

Day 5 photos

Good old Gerhard the  sculptor in the last pic.

Day 4

Seals, froth monsters and one seriously technical beach. By Ulla

Tuesday 8 March

Yewwwww!!! It's all creaky muscles, lobster sunburns and some seriously tired grins on deck after a huge day of cleaning Shark's Jaw Main and a cheeky late arvo meeting of the Port Davey Boardriders Club.

One jaw-dropper of a sunrise in Casilda Cove and after a mega brekkie, Team Clean steamed slowly out of Port Davey, headed for the rocky shores of Shark's Jaw Main. The seals were out in force off Trumpeter Islands, chasing the dinghies and pulling off some super speccy Olympic grade acrobatics.

Shark's Jaw Main is a Grade A technical beach. Thousands of small pieces of rope and plastic get wedged between the white rocks, and when the sun is super glarey, they can be difficult to spot. It?s also a plastic bottle vortex. Luckily, Team Clean were amped and absolutely up to the challenge. After a few long hours of cleaning and lugging buoys, ropes, rubbish bags and the world?s biggest tangle of bait straps up and down the beach, it was sparkling.

Back in Davey, a little right was spotted breaking off Earl's Point. The Boardriders Club convened a quick (3 second) meeting aboard the Velocity, decided that everyone deserves a hard earned wave after a long slog on the beach, and hit the water.

Boom! Froth monster massif. There is nothing in this world like surfing in Davey. Surrounded by off tap spectacular World Heritage mountains, huge wild skies and some truly legendary humans. It just takes your breath away.

Back on board the Velocity, Team Clean were confronted with a mega pile of trash. The count was frenzied, but by 11pm and 8724 pieces of rubbish later, we're done. Grinning, exhausted, and ready to hit the deck.

Day 4. Schools report, by Pat Spiers.

This trip depends heavily on the three boats, they are like our mobile bases. We sleep, eat and work on them. The back deck of the "Velocity" is a big open space, ideal for sorting rubbish (see photo) and the front decks of the other two boats are steadily filling up with giant bags of sorted rubbish.

Every night I sleep on "Wilson's voyager", a beautiful wooden fishing boat, in a bunk right up in the bow. It's pretty cosy but you have to be very organised, because there are no cupboards! it just like living in a tent. The others in my cabin are sometimes snorers so I am glad I bought a pair of earplugs!

When I went to bed all three boats were tied up side by side but in the morning the "Velocity" had disappeared! Don't worry, it hadn't sunk, the crew had made a very early departure to head north and check out our destination beach (Sharks Jaw bay, North of the Trumpeter islands - 43 16 38 S   145 49.10 E). Not just for rubbish but also for waves to surf  (lots of very keen surfers on that boat).

After they had their fun and the other two boats caught up we all headed out to the beach to begin the day's clean up. On the way in we were escorted by about 50 curious shiny seals who followed our boats snorting loudly and leaping out of the water.
Seals often gulp down their fish whole and any plastic in the prey fish builds up in the seal (predator).

Shark's jaw beach was very different from the beaches we have seen in last two days. There was no sand, it was very stones, with some whale bones here and there. The rubbish we were picked up was dominated by lots and lots of glass and bottles.

There were also a few other bits and pieces from ships and boats: A fridge, lots of buoys, very long bits of rope, and one really really gigantic trawl net. We couldn?t take the net with us because it was jammed tight under some rocks and the waves were crashing dangerously around. Alicia was very annoyed that we had to leave it behind.

When I had a close look at the big trawl net I realised where most of the bits of rope we have been picking up have come from:
A trawler is a type of fishing boat that drags a very big strong net through the water. Harry told me that if the net has a big broken bit then the trawler's crew cut it out and sometimes throw the whole thing overboard. If it is a small break then it is repaired but the cut-offs often get thrown away.
Nets are made of rope and all the discarded bits come apart in the waves then get washed up on our beaches.
It doesn't end there though, each short bit of rope is made of hundreds of tiny plastic strands twisted together, when these tiny strands are floating on the surface they are mistaken for food and swallowed by small animals.
So one bit of old net as big as your school desk can easily make a few thousand tiny bits of killer debris.

Time for a cheer up! The funniest bit of rubbish of the day was a big plastic cylinder thing that looked just like an enormous top hat when Phoebe carried it on her head. I have no idea what it was used for. She even did a dance and sang a song in French!

After 8 hours of non-stop rubbish collection we finally got back to the boats and motored off to find another surf break.

While we surfed, dived and swam the weather got a lot worse. The clouds and mist came in and the rain began falling steadily.

That night we counted 37 LARGE BAGS OF RUBBISH rubbish under the boat lights. It was a bit dangerous because of all the broken glass and big heavy ropes and buoys. When we were finished we had counted 8724 pieces, many of them quite large. Obviously something about the position of the beach means it collects the biggest debris.

A class has had a pretty good guess at the two main currents that meet off SW Tasmania, well done!

The two currents are:

1. The Zeehan current (which is really just an extension of the Leeuwin current), it flows down the coat of western Australia and then across the great Australian bight before bumping into Tasmania.
2. A little eddy of the East Australian current, that flows down the East coast of Australia and Tasmania and a bit of it curls off around the bottom of Tasmania.
This means that sometimes the rubbish we are picking up can come from Eastern Tasmania and sometimes as far away as the international waters in the Indian ocean!

The weather forecast for tomorrow is not so good so will probably head to a sheltered spot such as Hannant inlet.

See you soon everyone!

Pat

Day 4 positions

Beach 43 16.485S. 145 49.044E
Anchorage (pm) 43.50.280S 145 54.433E

Day 4

Seals, froth monsters and one seriously technical beach. By Ulla

Tuesday 8 March

Yewwwww!!! It's all creaky muscles, lobster sunburns and some seriously tired grins on deck after a huge day of cleaning Shark's Jaw Main and a cheeky late arvo meeting of the Port Davey Boardriders Club.

One jaw-dropper of a sunrise in Casilda Cove and after a mega brekkie, Team Clean steamed slowly out of Port Davey, headed for the rocky shores of Shark's Jaw Main. The seals were out in force off Trumpeter Islands, chasing the dinghies and pulling off some super speccy Olympic grade acrobatics.

Shark's Jaw Main is a Grade A technical beach. Thousands of small pieces of rope and plastic get wedged between the white rocks, and when the sun is super glarey, they can be difficult to spot. It?s also a plastic bottle vortex. Luckily, Team Clean were amped and absolutely up to the challenge. After a few long hours of cleaning and lugging buoys, ropes, rubbish bags and the world?s biggest tangle of bait straps up and down the beach, it was sparkling.

Back in Davey, a little right was spotted breaking off Earl's Point. The Boardriders Club convened a quick (3 second) meeting aboard the Velocity, decided that everyone deserves a hard earned wave after a long slog on the beach, and hit the water.

Boom! Froth monster massif. There is nothing in this world like surfing in Davey. Surrounded by off tap spectacular World Heritage mountains, huge wild skies and some truly legendary humans. It just takes your breath away.

Back on board the Velocity, Team Clean were confronted with a mega pile of trash. The count was frenzied, but by 11pm and 8724 pieces of rubbish later, we're done. Grinning, exhausted, and ready to hit the deck.

Day 4. Schools report, by Pat Spiers.

This trip depends heavily on the three boats, they are like our mobile bases. We sleep, eat and work on them. The back deck of the "Velocity" is a big open space, ideal for sorting rubbish (see photo) and the front decks of the other two boats are steadily filling up with giant bags of sorted rubbish.

Every night I sleep on "Wilson's voyager", a beautiful wooden fishing boat, in a bunk right up in the bow. It's pretty cosy but you have to be very organised, because there are no cupboards! it just like living in a tent. The others in my cabin are sometimes snorers so I am glad I bought a pair of earplugs!

When I went to bed all three boats were tied up side by side but in the morning the "Velocity" had disappeared! Don't worry, it hadn't sunk, the crew had made a very early departure to head north and check out our destination beach (Sharks Jaw bay, North of the Trumpeter islands - 43 16 38 S   145 49.10 E). Not just for rubbish but also for waves to surf  (lots of very keen surfers on that boat).

After they had their fun and the other two boats caught up we all headed out to the beach to begin the day's clean up. On the way in we were escorted by about 50 curious shiny seals who followed our boats snorting loudly and leaping out of the water.
Seals often gulp down their fish whole and any plastic in the prey fish builds up in the seal (predator).

Shark's jaw beach was very different from the beaches we have seen in last two days. There was no sand, it was very stones, with some whale bones here and there. The rubbish we were picked up was dominated by lots and lots of glass and bottles.

There were also a few other bits and pieces from ships and boats: A fridge, lots of buoys, very long bits of rope, and one really really gigantic trawl net. We couldn?t take the net with us because it was jammed tight under some rocks and the waves were crashing dangerously around. Alicia was very annoyed that we had to leave it behind.

When I had a close look at the big trawl net I realised where most of the bits of rope we have been picking up have come from:
A trawler is a type of fishing boat that drags a very big strong net through the water. Harry told me that if the net has a big broken bit then the trawler's crew cut it out and sometimes throw the whole thing overboard. If it is a small break then it is repaired but the cut-offs often get thrown away.
Nets are made of rope and all the discarded bits come apart in the waves then get washed up on our beaches.
It doesn't end there though, each short bit of rope is made of hundreds of tiny plastic strands twisted together, when these tiny strands are floating on the surface they are mistaken for food and swallowed by small animals.
So one bit of old net as big as your school desk can easily make a few thousand tiny bits of killer debris.

Time for a cheer up! The funniest bit of rubbish of the day was a big plastic cylinder thing that looked just like an enormous top hat when Phoebe carried it on her head. I have no idea what it was used for. She even did a dance and sang a song in French!

After 8 hours of non-stop rubbish collection we finally got back to the boats and motored off to find another surf break.

While we surfed, dived and swam the weather got a lot worse. The clouds and mist came in and the rain began falling steadily.

That night we counted 37 LARGE BAGS OF RUBBISH rubbish under the boat lights. It was a bit dangerous because of all the broken glass and big heavy ropes and buoys. When we were finished we had counted 8724 pieces, many of them quite large. Obviously something about the position of the beach means it collects the biggest debris.

A class has had a pretty good guess at the two main currents that meet off SW Tasmania, well done!

The two currents are:

1. The Zeehan current (which is really just an extension of the Leeuwin current), it flows down the coat of western Australia and then across the great Australian bight before bumping into Tasmania.
2. A little eddy of the East Australian current, that flows down the East coast of Australia and Tasmania and a bit of it curls off around the bottom of Tasmania.
This means that sometimes the rubbish we are picking up can come from Eastern Tasmania and sometimes as far away as the international waters in the Indian ocean!

The weather forecast for tomorrow is not so good so will probably head to a sheltered spot such as Hannant inlet.

See you soon everyone!

Pat

Day 4 photos

Class challenge: two of these photos show close-up views of the beach just as YOU would see it if you were here with us as part of the cleanup team. Can you spot the rubbish? Can you identify the individual pieces?

By the way, that's Gillespie's ginger beer we're drinking.

Day 3 photos

Day 3

By Phoebe,

We were forewarned about Stephens Beach by the likes of Ula and Matt, "Guys, today is gonna be huge! If you thought yesterday was bad…." Aww man!. So after the bushwalk through the rain from Spain Bay with spectacular views and some equally spectacular scratches from the waist-high scrub, we found ourselves at the infamous Stephens beach.

At first we were confused by the complete lack of rubbish as we trudged along the sand admiring the tremendous dunes, a tiny piece of plastic here, a water bottle 50 metres later, but once we were halfway down we understood what they were on about.
Heads-down bums-up we scoured square meter after square meter for tiny, tiny pieces of plastic, after a while we realised there was no way of retrieving them all and simply did the best we could. Other items included old rusted buoys, a gigantic broken net, plenty of rope and even a cray tag from New Zealand. Exhausted, we left our loot above high tide to pick up later after the swell dies down and headed back over the hill carrying what we could.

In the evening the Breaksea and Wilsons Voyager cruised into Bathurst Harbour for a look and a few from Velocity had a super slippery climb up Balmont Hill to catch the sunset and a ridiculously stunning 360 degree view of the surrounds. And some chilli con carne and tuna goulash were a pretty fantastic finish to a fantastic day. 

Schools report, by Pat Spiers.

Day 3:   7/3/16

We are all a bit sore after a big day, cleaning up Stephens beach! it was a big one, almost 2km long with a big dune behind it.

To get there we had to motor back to Spain bay and then go ashore in the dinghy, scramble across the slippery rocks and walk a few kilometres across the mountains in the rain.

Stephens beach is a very wild beach compared to Spain bay beach yesterday.  We picked up a lot less small pieces of rope, instead there were thousands and thousands of pieces of small pieces of plastic (and some gigantic pieces of net and huge buoys). These were so heavy they needed to be dragged along by two people.

Oscar and Phoebe looped a rope through the biggest buoy and dragged it along behind them, I was innocently picking up some rubbish and they came in like a wrecking ball. Watch out Pat!

I went up into the mega-dune behind the beach and it was like being on the moon – except for all the tiny bits of plastic that had blown up there.

Marie is a small plastic collection specialist, she said, "every tiny piece of plastic I can collect is one more bit that won't end up disrupting a food chain"

Sebastian sent in a good question about this yesterday "Do you think crayfish and shellfish are affected?"

I asked Lachy about this, he is a marine ecologist and he explained:

1. Shellfish like mussels are filter feeders. Some pieces of plastic are so small that they CAN be eaten by mussels and filter feeders, and the really small plastic pieces can lodge in their guts and block them up.
The other thing about plastic is that toxic chemicals bond to it, so the pieces are toxic too!
Even if the plastic passes through the animal the toxins end up in the shellfish's flesh.

2. Crayfish are scavengers and carnivores (they hunt things like urchins and abalone). If there are bits of toxic plastic in their food then they end up in the Cray. If a Cray eats lots of these animals the toxins build up to much higher levels

3. It's different for each species. Marine Zoologists are still working out the details.

Thanks Lachy.

Stephens beach faces out to sea and it was too rough for the boats to come in and pick up the rubbish and so we secured the bags and nets for later pickup and started the long walk back along a VERY NICE CLEAN BEACH!

There was another stash of rubbish at the start of the walk back to Spain bay so we all of us loaded up with lots of stinking trash and carried it back over the hill.

Once we had ferried all the rubbish back to the big boats we motored back into Bathurst channel while dolphins played in the waves we made.

When we finally put down the anchor we counted the rubbish and climbed another steep mountain to see the view.

It was a big day's work. I hope the sea is calm enough for the boats to get to shore and retrieve our rubbish when we are going past Stephens beach on the way home.

Later that night Masaake played his Shakuhachi (a type of wooden flute from Japan) while the stars shone brightly. That was a great thing to do just before going to bed. We slept like logs.

Tomorrow we are heading north to a rocky beach, I can't wait.

See you tomorrow guys. Can you do me a favour? Please tell your families about the rubbish we are finding on the wilderness beaches down here when you have your dinner tonight.

Pat

Panorama

view from the hill above our anchorage yesterday evening

Some photos from day 2.

Day 2. Combined blogs

Day 2. Guest blogger: Pip Jones.

Waking up to the smoother waters around Ketchum, we set out for our first day picking on the beaches of Spain Bay. We swept across Southwest Cape, spending a lot of time picking through the rocky tidelines and creeks that empty onto the beach. Thousands of pieces of rope and plastic have disintegrated and become lodged within the stones and driftwood that build up around these areas.

Our final count for day 1 clocked 8,388. Our best picks for the day were a couple of toothbrushes, a french shampoo, most of a small electric fan and a couple of shotgun shells.

We finished the day with Masaaki's fresh tuna ceviche just as the rain set in, watching while Pat as he hiked across the ridges that ring Port Davey. Not a bad start!

Expedition class report for schools by Pat Spiers

Sunday 6 March: The first big day cleaning a beach!

After sending out yesterday morning's message it was time to join the team cleaning the beaches of Spain bay.

We had 16 people walking along the beach looking for rubbish.

The method we used reminded me of something we used to do when I was about 10 years old. Whenever there was a large area to be cleaned up, we would do something called an "Emu bob".

An "Emu bob" cleanup is basically a line of people where everyone stands about 2m from each other and walks along together with their eyes down, looking carefully for rubbish.
If you spot some rubbish and bent over to pick it up your arm looks JUST LIKE THE HEAD OF AN EMU pecking the ground.
Simple and effective!

That's what the team was doing on this beach, and it was working well.

I had to catch up to the line and found they had already snagged all the big-ticket rubbish items such as buckets, shotgun shells and makeup containers.

I walked slowly along the high tide line scanning the sand. What surprised me was all the thousands and thousands of short bits of plastic rope.

The beach was almost totally covered in these tiny 4-8cm long bits of rope.

I think you know this type of rope, it is cheap and shiny when new and it is braided together. It is made of a plastic called Polypropylene. Your family probably uses it when you go camping. When it gets into the oceans it breaks down into thousands of these little plastic strands which absorb more toxic chemicals.

That's almost all I picked up all day long!

When we gathered together on the back deck of one of the boats and counted the rubbish at the end of the day we worked out had collected a whopping 3684 bits of rope and 3220 small bits of plastic.

Phoebe was cross when she realised she had just counted 190 small pieces of plastic but had not separated out the bottle lids (which are a different class of rubbish on our count list)

Matt Dell is the organiser of the trip and he said, "Well I'll be blowed! We cleaned this beach last last year and thought it would be quite clean!"

Matt told me that the rubbish ends up on these beaches because of the Ocean currents and the regular westerly winds.
Can anybody name the two currents that meet off SW Tasmania?

Hints:
-One current flows down the coat of western Australia and then across the great Australian bight before bumping into Tasmania.
-The other current flows down the East coast of Australia and Tasmania and a bit of it curls off around the bottom of Tasmania.

After the rubbish had been sorted into different bags and tied down securely we sailed around into Bathurst harbour past some amazing rocky mountains that came down to the sea in big cliffs and tied the 3 boats together in a raft.

I got to go exploring by myself and climbed a hill where I got the most amazing view of the area - see the photo for yourself.

Tomorrow we are headed back to another beach in Spain bay.

It's a bit windy today, I wonder if I will get a chance to fly my kite in the next few days?

Some good parts of today

1. When Masaaki showed me some native pepper berries and of course I had to taste them. For the first half a minute I chewed enthusiastically then for the next two minutes I danced around spitting out the fiery hot seeds. I think I will try tricking one of the others today.
2. Hiking up a hill where near where we slept and finding a spot the most amazing view of the area - see the photo for yourself.
3. Spotting all the little invertebrates that live on the beach.
4. Eating Masaaki and Gerhard's spectacular food!

See you soon everyone!

Pat

Day 1

Coming around Whale Head and southeast cape we we?re greeted by 20 knots of SW with 2 meters of sea slowing us down a fair bit and making the traveling a little interesting. With only two or three troops subsiding to the sea sickness, we pushed through along the south coast keeping busy by catching and reeling in a few blue fin tuna and stopping just inside Big Witch Island to catch a feed of flatty for dinner. After a long day of steaming we arrived in New Harbor, about 5 miles east of southwest cape for some well deserved tucker and sleep.

The skippers woke up at sparrow fart after the westerly had passed allowing us to steam around southwest cape and up into Port Davey. The team woke up in Spain Bay to the sound of the anchors dropping. A quick cook up of eggs and bacon whilst admiring the quarts cliffs of Davey and we were ready for the big day of cleaning and beach combing ahead.