Article
Marine Debris Campaign Local Clean-ups
Tuesday, 02 Jan, 2018
Since Sea Shepherd launched our Marine Debris Campaign in Australia in 2016, our volunteer marine debris teams involving over 23,000 amazing people have conducted hundreds of beach clean-ups around Australia and offshore. These clean-ups have removed over 2.6 million pieces of marine debris from our beaches, rivers and waterways.
What is involved at a Marine Debris Campaign clean-up?
Participants are provided with bags and gloves, then they head out to collect rubbish they find. Bags are then brought back to our clean-up hub where we sort, count and record each item found. The statistics are then uploaded to our database which is publicly available. We can then use the data that is recorded to do source reduction – say where we find large numbers of one particular item we try to go back to the source of where it likely came from and work with businesses or councils in an attempt to stop further debris ending up in the environment.
Our Marine Debris clean-ups occur all around the country. Here are a few snapshots from some of the events.
Interested to find out more? Email marinedebris@seashepherd.org.au for further information or follow our dedicated Sea Shepherd Australia Marine Debris Campaign Facebook page.