The WA Beach Clean-Up 20th anniversary on 24 islands in the Abrolhos archipelago was a joint initiative between Keep Australia Beautiful WA, the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, Central Regional Tafe, Yamatji Southern Regional Corporation and Tangaroa Blue Foundation.
The clean-up took place on 17-19 September, with most of the debris consisting of fishing rope, fishing floats and foreign water bottles.
Two boats, staff from DBCA, students from Central Regional Tafe and sea rangers from Yamatji Southern Regional Corporation assisted KAB WA and Tangaroa Blue Foundation with the event.
KABC program officer Anna Cross said the clean-up would be a case study for Tangaroa Blue Foundation’s 20th year WA Beach Clean-Up report for the Northern Agricultural Catchment.
“There has not been a lot of data recorded from the Abrolhos Islands and this activity will set a baseline for data collection in this area,” she said.
“The data has been added to the Australian Marine Debris Initiative database, which provides a centralised repository for litter and marine debris data to be collated for analysis.”
Additional data on floats was recorded and will be provided to the Northern Agricultural Catchment Council for its Fishing Floats project which was funded through this year’s Keep Australia Beautiful WA’s Community Litter Grants.
WA Beach Clean-Up activities officially started on 11-14 October with KAB WA’s metropolitan clean-up event taking place at Mullaloo Beach on Sunday 13 October. An additional clean-up at Middleton Beach in Albany is planned for Friday 18 October.
More information can be found on the WA Beach Clean Up page.
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