South West Marine Debris Cleanup

Sunday, March 17, 2013

First rubbish found deep inside Port Davey

Day 2: Balmoral Cove and surrounding coastal areas, Port Davey
Most sterling piece of rubbish collected: One army issue khaki green
waterbottle
Pieces of rubbish collected: 1188

After a slightly bumpy night steam around South West Cape, the cleanup
crew arrived at Spain Bay, Port Davey in the early hours of this morning
aboard cleanup veteran vessels the Velocity and Breaksea and cleanup
newcomer The Diamantina III.
As the winds picked up, we cruised around to Balmoral Cove, Port Davey.
Almost everyone was champing at the bit to clean the outrageously
beautiful coastline of Balmoral Cove, but the sands were surprisingly
clean and the morning's garbage haul was minimal. An 800+ piece haul of
rope, plastic and bait straps in the late arvo from a hidden cove
brought today's total to almost 1200 items, but the team is frothing for
a big day tomorrow.
Sushi master extraordinaire Masaaki scooped the prize for most
interesting piece of trash with a mud encrusted army issue water bottle.
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Safe and sound in Port Davey

Day 2:today we arrived at Spain bay in Port Davey after travelling all
night. Mid morning we set off too Balmoral cove and the surrounding
coastal areas to pick up rubbish. We collected 1188 pieces of rubbish
including plastic bottles, small plastics, bait savers, bait straps and
plastic bag pieces. On the clean up we have a thing called immunity, how
it works is if you find an extraordinary piece of rubbish off the beach,
the crew has a vote for the person who found the best item and if your
lucky you don't have to count rubbish in the afternoon. today Masaaki
got immunity with his army issue drink bottle!
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Saturday, March 16, 2013

Albert's Blog

day 1: today we all introduced ourselves, got on board the Velocity packed our gear and set off for Port Davey along the south west coast. Motoring off at 11p.m we plan to get there by 7a.m. the crew for the trip is me Albert Wyatt, my dad Dave Wyatt, Matt Dell, Masaaki Koyama, Zac, Lou Chasemore and Vica Bayley. all six of us are very keen to get around there, get cleaning and have a great week!
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Underway under cloudy sky's and light winds

All thee boats are currently heading south down past Recherche Bay with a moderate swell and light winds. Providing the winds stay light we should be in Port Davey by first light. Its been a long day spent collecting the supplies and loading the boats to ensure we have a chance of beating the expected southerly change midday tomorrow.The crew are looking forward to settling into Port Davey and searching out some new rubbish haunts. We should have two days to explore the vast protected coastline.

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Let the provisioning begin

Well the supplies have started rolling in. Yves from Miellerie Honey dropped of some very tasty looking Lake Pedder Nectar and about an hour later the express courier van dropped off two boxes of goodies from Patagonia (legend effort Case).
With the weather the way it is looking we will try and sneak around the south coast of Tassie either late Friday Night or very very early Saturday morning so tomorrow is going to be hectic. We have to distribute all the fresh and dry stores from Hill Street then race out to the Wursthaus, pack everything and get down to the boats ASAP. Stay tuned

2013 Marine Debris Press Release

MEDIA RELEASE – 14th March 2013

Say goodbye to Bait straps

Marine Debris Cleanup of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, south west coast Tasmania

This Saturday, weather permitting, three boat loads of excited and adventurous volunteers will board a flotilla of commercial fishing boats and return to the pristine coasts of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. The mission is a simple one, remove and document every visible item of rubbish on every beach we visit.

The cleanup has been running since 1999 and is the longest remote area baseline marine debris survey in the Southern Hemisphere. Since it began 15 years ago, many thousands of hours have been spent beachcombing some of the most wild and isolated beaches in Australia. To date around 117,000 individual items of rubbish have been collected and itemised. In total, the team have collected over 39000 pieces of broken plastic, 36000 pieces of rope,10000 bait box straps, 6000 plastic containers, 5400 bottle caps, 3200 beer cans, 1400 pieces of trawl net and 5 Ugg boots.

All rubbish collected is sorted into various recyclables with the remainder sent to landfill. The collected data* provides information regarding changes in rubbish types and amounts, and when combined with oceanic circulation models it helps determine where the rubbish is coming from.

This year we have forged a new partnership with the Tasmanian Seafood Industry Council in a bid to remove bait related packaging from the fishing bait production cycle. As in South Australia, we are aiming to remove bait straps as a form of packaging. We have collected over 10000 of these since 1999. Bait straps pose a threat to wildlife and litter nearly every beach we visit.

Grade 8 Hutchins High School student Albert Wyatt will be posting a daily blog to the adventure learning Expedition class website. Our blog will also be updated daily.

Please follow our lead, anyone can help by simply putting rubbish in the closest rubbish bin or by picking up rubbish they see lying on the ground which frequently washes or blows out to sea.

The outdoor clothing company Patagonia, Pennicott Wilderness Journeys, The Tasmanian Seafood Industry Council and AWM Electrical are financial sponsors providing generous financial support for fuel, boat charter, food and kitting out the team with appropriate clothing. Gillespie's Ginger Beer, The Wursthaus, The Wursthaus Kitchen, Moo Brew, Hill Street Grocer and Miellerie Honey, are in-kind sponsors helping to keep the crew provisioned for the week-long trip.

The most essential contribution is from the commercial fishermen who take us around the coast. Thanks to Dave Wyatt of Southern Ocean Adventures,Mark Webster of Ralphs Tasmanian Seafoods and Fisherman Darren Clark. Normal charter costs for this one week’s boat hire would be close to $60000.

Please follow us on the Daily Blog at: http://wha-marinedebris.blogspot.com/

Further Enquiries:

Matt Dell

Email: mattdell@tpg.com.au

Mobile: 0419 922 887

Satellite phone: 0404 056 143 from Monday 23rd of March 2013

* Statistics, videos and photos available on the blog

Sunday, March 10, 2013

Raffle Night

After a bit of frantic last minute ticket selling the crew filled the box full of the 1000 tickets that were sold and gave it a few hours of very thorough mixing while we enjoyed the fine music at Mobius. Finally SP found a spare 5 minutes and the Raffle was drawn about 12:30 am Sunday Morning. SP will be in contact with all the winners. Many thanks to all those who donated prizes and bought tickets and special thanks to the team for a great job in selling the full 1000 tickets in a month.

1^st Prize

Pennicott Wilderness Journeys 3 Hour Eco Cruise for 2 guests – Pat Trinder

http://www.pennicottjourneys.com.au/

2^nd Prize

MONA $200 Gift Voucher - Stormon Norman

http://www.mona.net.au/

Prize 3

Ethos Dinner for 2 – N. Campbell

http://ethoseatdrink.com/

Prize - AWM Electrical $100 Gift Voucher – Simone Castle

http://www.truelocal.com.au/business/awm-electrical/hobart

Prize - The Italian Pantry $100 Gift Voucher – Lou Proud