photo: Nearly 14,000 individual items of rubbish, removed from beaches in the South West Wilderness World Heritage Area, are offloaded from Dave Wyatt's cray-boat, "Velocity". ©2008 Matt Dell

In 1999 Surfrider Foundation began a campaign to address the massive problem of marine debris washing onto Tasmanian shorelines each year. Apart from causing unsightly pollution on our beaches, marine debris causes the cruel death of untold numbers of marine mammals, birds, and fishes.

Surfrider Foundation Australia has now conducted 6 clean ups on the beaches and rocky shorelines in the South West Wilderness World Heritage Area, one of the world’s last remote, truly wild coasts. “On beaches where the only tracks you find are those of wild animals, the masses of marine rubbish provide a stark contrast in this otherwise pristine wilderness” stated Hobart Surfrider Foundation chairman Matt Dell, event organiser and previous “Coca-Cola Community Environment Award winner” for his dedication to this cause.

“The cleanups provide an opportunity to analyse the trends in the types and concentrations of rubbish polluting these pristine beaches, and also provide a chance to observe and interact with the fishermen working on the coast and listen to their stories and suggestions on how to reduce the impact of Marine Debris”. The most common complaint from the fishermen over the last 3 cleanups has been the lack of disposal facilities at the regional fishing ports and jetties around Tasmania, something which Surfrider Australia will be working on with key stakeholders to address into the future.

This year’s cleanup was the most successful to date in terms of items collected with nearly 14000 individual items collected from just 4 beaches , an increase of nearly 50% from last year. Interesting items collected this year included a South African Government “drift card”, evidence that rubbish continues to wash in to these remote beaches from all parts of the globe. Surfrider Foundation is just covering a small portion of the coast and could conceivably spend a year around there cleaning the beaches but time, funding and resources are key issues to address into the future.

The education of local fishermen has been identified as the key to addressing the problem of marine debris, and this year we again enlisted local cray-fishermen Dave Wyatt, Kent Way and Dean Horton to help transport us and to raise the profile of this problem among their peers. Surfrider Foundation Australia thanks them for their generous donation of their time, seafaring experience and knowledge of the coast, without which the trip would not be possible.

This year Quiksilver also generously provided financial and volunteer support for the cleanup. Mel Davis from the Torquay head office joined us for the trip and was amazed at the volume and extent of the problem, and we look forward to their continued participation in this worthwhile program.

JOIN THE SURFRIDER FOUNDATION AUSTRALIA HERE