Net Wars

Today was a big day; its 10:15pm and the restaurant at the end of the world has just served up a very late okonomiyaki dinner. Today started with a brisk 45 minute walk from Spain Bay over the unusually dry track to Stephens Beach. The western end of Stephens was sheltered and yielded very little in the way of rubbish. Around halfway down the beach the usual microplastics and small rope pieces started appearing. After 3 hours on Stephens, the team embarked on a 20 minute walk through the mobile dune fields. Emerging through the boobyalla scrub, we arrived at Noyhener beach at 3pm for a 4 hour power cleaning session. We hadn't cleaned Noyhener for a number of years, and were greeted by multiple enormous trawlnets and countless microplastics. There was also a large stash of marine debris at the campsite, thanks to bushwalkers doing their bit while hiking the South West Circuit.

Volume wise, this was the biggest haul of the trip. Well over 500 kgs of trawl net were removed from this one beach, with multiple long trolley hauls in the pouring rain. This made for an extreme dinghy extraction in the large South Westerly swell - thanks to Dave's amazing skills on the tiller, everyone got home safely and (relatively) dry.

After 9 hours on land, the tired and bedraggled crew made their way East; rounding Southwest Cape escorted by many thousands of shearwaters and albatross. We left the count for the next day, to be completed after a good night's rest in the calm sanctuary of New Harbour.

P.s. The smurfette collected by Alby won the immunity item for the day!

A New Rope

The morning was wet and wild when we awoke in Bramble Bay in Port Davey. The westerly winds were blowing and the swell was forecast for 5 metres, so we had limited options for safe landings for beaches to clean.

The surfers amongst us were keen for a wave. It was a wild crossing past the Breaksea islands to Earl Point, where there were some gentle and fun waves braking. The surfers bravely faced the squally weather and spent some fun hours surfing landlocked in the wilderness.

The rest of the crew had a wonderful adventure up the Davey River. This dark, tannin stained river was explored in the trusty tinny named “420 Buster”, navigating sandbars and sunken old Huon pines. The river runs through a beautiful quartzite gorge, which was quite simply, gorgeous.

We travelled as far as we could up the river until we hit rapids, and had a delightful picnic on the bank, feeling very grateful for being in such a wild and removed place.

The afternoon consisted of a clean up of the beaches along the north side of Bond Bay, and we are happy to report that there was very little rubbish, with only 36 pieces of rubbish collected by our team.

The remainder of the day was filled with swims, basket weaving and naps. The wild weather abated to reward us with a glorious sunset as we filled our bellies with some hearty dinner

The Nurdle Strikes Back

The team had a later start this morning with the Velocity crew having a big crayfish fry up for breakfast courtesy of our king of crays Masaaki, while the Rumours crew warded off scurvy with Jay making a big and very delicious fruit salad. After breakfast we had an exciting steam over to Bramble Cove, inside Port Davy, with some waves breaking over the beam. After waiting for the morning showers to stop we headed ashore and immediately found ourselves deep in microplastic land.

The team spent several hours all together sifting through the sticks and stones unearthing endless small plastic pieces and nurdles. Half the team then continued further around the rocky shoreline finding a variety of big plastics including 106 plastic bottles, 158 bottle caps and one very large piece of green striped salmon farm plastic piping. This was nothing, however, compared to the small stuff with 2,010 small rope pieces and 4,717 plastic pieces. Eventually the team made it round to a beach for pick up.

Back on Rumours the crafter-noon was in full swing with our basket making queen, Lee, teaching us basket making from the colourful ropes we’ve picked up. Later in the afternoon the two boats rafted up behind Turnbull Island and it was time for the count. Dinner was a Captain Bucky and Masaaki special with steak, barbecued tuna, veggies and chips!

The final number for the day was 8,796

Caitlin

Return of the Microplastics

The team awoke at dawn and headed north out of Port Davey for the first day cleaning an open ocean beach. Escorted up the coast by albatross and shearwater, the crew were dropped in the sheltered coves at the northern end of Wreck Bay. What started as a gentle walk along the beach through the steep sharp rocks soon descended into a slow crawl on all fours picking up thousands of small plastic pieces. The density of the plastic meant it took the crew of 11 over 2 hours to move 100 metres along the face and base of large dune south of a tannin stained creek. The creek also yielded a number of large ropes and a large, very heavy plastic encased glass pressure buoy, rated to use at depths up to 6700 metres. 

South of the beach past the remnants of the wreck of the Svenor, whose ribs were still visible along the tideline, the team found another small plastic hotspot. After 6 hours on the beach we dragged our haul back over the angrily sharp quartzite headlands and back to a sheltered beach for Dave to retrieve in the dingy.

The count took well over three hours with a record 898 nurdles amongst the 15,646 items counted. Over 12,000 of these items were plastic pieces, along with over 1000 pieces of rope, 484 bottle caps and 196 bait straps.

Masaaki's restaurant at the end of the world served up a late but sumptuous feast of fresh tuna temaki handrolls, BBQ crayfish, and a magnificent rich crayfish and vegetable miso to celebrate Albert's 26th birthday.

 

Hannants Inlet

Team clean started the day rafted up for a fry-up brekkie in beautiful calm Schooner Cove, where the bravest and noblest among us had a morning swim. We sprang into action preparing ourselves for an overland assault on Stephen’s Beach, only to change tack immediately on seeing the forecast. After our haily day yesterday, 20kt Southerlies out on the coast didn’t feel attractive. Instead we putted over to the beaches of Hannant’s Inlet with the strategy of divide and conquer.

Initially team Rumours was leading the count on the longer beach on the Eastern side. It was hit and miss on the other beaches, with some of the crew finding nothing and others being sucked into the micro-vortex.

We eventually joined forces to tackle a sludgy disheartening stretch of shore where rope and plastic were embedded in the soil and undergrowth everywhere we looked. That final couple of hundred metres took us a good couple of hours, digging and crawling through the scrub to pull out festy net pieces and bottles. Big ticket items were some big buoys, a fender and some fish crates. After six hours we called it a day, with everyone happy to get back to the boats and have a good scrub

We spent the evening in Bond Bay, where the first pots of the infamous cray competition were set, and after the count we settled in on Rumours for curry night (thanks Ruth and Masaki!)

The final count for today was 5,563

By Gabby

Day 1 of the 2025 Clean UP!

The crew on Rumours made it into to Schooner Cove before dark last night after a heroic steam by Skipper Bucky and deckie Grant. A mix bag of experiences with some crew sleeping off the journey comfortably and others suffering the effects of big seas and wild conditions. A floatila of boats met us, also sheltering out the storms in Schooner Cove. It was a relief to get into calm waters and see the majesty of Bathurst Harbour before dark. 

Woke early to meet Velocity in Spain Bay to coordinate the plans for the day. With such a small team this year it was logistically easy to get us from our respective boats and onto the easterly corner to tackle the micro plastic build up! The first day is always a shock as we're always confronted by so much marine debris in this wild and precious place.    

Wild weather with hail was the order of the day with 2 fab storms coming through, drenching the crew and causing some wardrobe malfunctions and readjustments! Luckily we had a few breaks where the sun came out and we could take in the beautiful views of Mt Stokes and Breaksea Islands.

Small plastic bags pieces, bait bags, bait straps by the hundreds and rope of every size and shape was collected. A few interesting items were bagged, such as drift card from CSIRO, circa 1970's. If we  post the card back we'll be rewarded handsomely with the princely sum of 70cents. We also found half a toy soldier, a canon printer cartridge, a syringe with needle intact and the usual paraphenalia that floats on the ocean currents and winds up on our coastline.

We started the count once rafted up back at Schooner Cove with all the new crew getting the rundown from the veterans of how it works. With 11 beach combers we had less to categorise this year and got the job done. Micro counting on Rumours brings out the hyper focused individuals  to finish off the day's work.  

Total count for day 1 - 8676! Good job team!

Travelling

We have awoken to the subdued grey and green hues of the far southwest in Spain Bay after a deep sleep lengthened by the gentle roll of the boat in this sheltered safe haven. Yesterday's steam from Southport was one of the more challenging we have experienced, with a confused swell of 5 to 8 metres, with westerly winds backing from 20 knots to around 15 by the time we made Southwest Cape. Enormous rafts and flocks of seabirds surrounded the boat as we made our way past Maatsuyker Island and while Ula and Ruth managed the effects of prolonged seasickness our resident fishing master Masaaki pulled in a fat 25 kilo tuna in very challenging conditions. We arrived at Spain Bay after an 8 hour punch at 10:30pm. 

Today we will spend the day inducting the newbies Jay, Jen and Caitlin to the meditation that is southwest rubbish extraction. Spain Bay offers a gentle start, wandering the protected sandy beaches with a little creek microplastic kicker at the end of the bay amongst a tangle of sticks and branches.

Photos by Ula and Matt