PRESS RELEASE: Harnessing the Power of the People for the Great Barrier Reef
MEDIA RELEASE
6 October 2019
Harnessing the Power of the People for the Great Barrier Reef
One of the largest ever people-powered clean-ups of the Great Barrier Reef began this week, with young and old uniting to make a difference.
“In all my years running clean ups around the Great Barrier Reef, I’ve never seen marine debris like this,” says Tangaroa Blue’s Managing Director, Heidi Taylor.
“The sad fact is that marine debris is a major threat to the Great Barrier Reef, and in some of the most remote locations in the region, volunteers are removing over 1 tonne of rubbish per kilometre!”
The Great Barrier Reef Clean-up is part of the 5-year ReefClean project, which focuses on both the removal and prevention of marine debris impacting our iconic reef. Over the weekend of October 5th & 6th, 338 volunteers joined one of the five Great Barrier Reef Clean-up launch events that took place across the Wet Tropics, Burdekin, Mackay Whitsundays, Fitzroy and Burnett Mary NRM Regions, with an additional event happening later in October on Badu Island in the Torres Strait.
“Local communities and our partners are the lifeblood of the ReefClean project. We’re delighted that so many showed their love for the Reef this weekend and turned out to protect the coastline and islands by removing over 3 tonnes of rubbish from our shores.
“These clean-ups immediately improve the health of the local environment and protect our precious species like Turtles, Dugong and Dolphins from eating and getting caught up in marine debris.
“The clean-ups also deliver vital data for the Australian Marine Debris Initiative Database, which helps identify the sources of where all this rubbish is coming from. Once we’ve crunched the data, we can work with communities to reduce the rubbish at the source in order to better protect the reef in the future.”
The Great Barrier Reef Clean-up series runs throughout October, and people who are keen to run their own clean-up events can register with ReefClean at www.reefclean.org and will receive a resource pack to support their efforts.
ReefClean is funded by the Australian Government’s Reef Trust and delivered by Tangaroa Blue Foundation, Conservation Volunteers Australia, AUSMAP, Capricornia Catchments, Eco Barge Clean Seas, OceanWatch Australia, Reef Check Australia and South Cape York Catchments.
If you’d like to volunteer at an existing event or register a site, visit www.reefclean.org.
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Media Contact:
Heidi Taylor | +61 (0)410 166 684 | [email protected]
About ReefClean:
ReefClean is a project funded by the Australian Government’s Reef Trust. Launched in early 2019, the project aims to remove and prevent marine debris along the Great Barrier Reef region through to 2023. In order to do this, Tangaroa Blue Foundation has partnered with several organisations to achieve success: Conservation Volunteers Australia, Reef Check Australia, Capricornia Catchments, Eco Barge Clean Seas, OceanWatch Australia, South Cape York Catchments, AUSMAP and Think Spatial.
The ReefClean project delivers the following services:
• Community clean-up events
• Site monitoring
• The Great Barrier Reef Clean-up event annually in October
• Community Source Reduction Plan Workshops
• School and community engagement activities
• Data analysis
• Disaster management clean-ups
For more information: http://reefclean.org/
