Parks Conservation officers at Gladstone Regional Council, Queensland, can always be counted on to pitch in and help take care of the region’s natural environment.
Field officer, Monique Galloway, and trainee, Stephanie Beckman, took part in a marine debris clean-up on Curtis Island recently joining members of the Tangaroa Blue Foundation and Conservation Volunteers Australia.
Last year, Tangaroa Blue Foundation and several of the Australian Marine Debris Initiative partners successfully applied for an Australian Government tender to remove and prevent marine debris along the Great Barrier Reef over the next five years. This project is called ‘ReefClean’.
Events have been held from Cape York to Bundaberg and include clean-up activities, data collection, education and awareness presentations and displays, school activities, source reduction workshops and projects all focused on reducing marine debris impact on the Reef.
There are six monitoring sites in the Gladstone Region that will be visited every three months with all debris removed, collected, sorted and recorded into the Australian Marine Debris Initiative.
Larger community ReefClean events occur twice a year at Facing and Curtis Islands as well as Bustard Bay in Agnes Water.
The next clean-up events will be on 16 October (Curtis Island) and 30 October (Facing Island).
Event details and more information on these events, plus other workshops and opportunities to get involved, can be found at facebook.com/ReefClean.
