Jane Enright (left) and Lyn Bain (right) clear Moruya River mangroves of litter. Photo: Supplied.
Landcare volunteers and the Eurobodalla Marine Debris Working Group have taken advantage of summer’s low tides to clean up the north side of Moruya River in the mangroves along the bank.
Eurobodalla Shire Council environmental education officer Bernadette Davis said extreme low tides provided an opportunity to get into usually hard to reach areas.
“We had quite a few storm and flood events during 2020, with street litter washing into the river system,” she said.
“Apart from being unsightly – who wants to live in a tip – some of that litter can cause damage or even kill marine animals and birds. That’s why it is so important to determine where the litter comes from, then we can stop it at the source.”
The volunteers removed more than 25kg of trash from the mangrove area east of the Quarry Wharf, which included 21 beer bottles, 24 plastic drink bottles, and 25 aluminium cans.
“Those are now all headed for recycling,” said Ms Davis. “The good news was we only found one plastic shopping bag – quite an improvement on previous years.
“We record all our marine debris findings onto the Australian Marine Debris Database. That way we can track litter trends and put in place educational and infrastructure projects to address them at their source. Anyone can access the database, which is very easy to use thanks to a handy phone app.”
For more information or to download the app, visit Eurobodalla Shire Council’s Marine Debris Working Group website.
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