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More volunteers needed to clean up our beaches

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Cape York residents are being encouraged to help clean up the Peninsula’s beaches this year as Tangaroa Blue celebrates 10 years working in the region.

Volunteers for beach cleaning
Volunteers travel from all over Australia to help clean up Cape York beaches and record the data. Photo: Matt Nicholls.

Since 2011, the Tangaroa Blue Foundation has run annual beach clean-ups, with the first ever held at Chilli Beach, north of Lockhart River.

This year, there are clean-ups planned at Captain Billy Landing, Mapoon, Chilli Beach and Five Beaches Loop.

During these events, marine debris is collected from the shoreline, sorted and entered into the Australian Marine Debris Initiative database.

Heidi Tait
Tangaroa Blue icon Heidi Tait.
Photo: Matt Nicholls.

Information collected is then used to work with stakeholders and work on solutions to stop the flow of litter at the source.

Over the past decade, a whopping 601,270 items, weighing 35 tonnes, have been picked up from Chilli Beach and recorded into the database.

The Tangaroa team will be heading up there again in August, and are once again looking for passionate volunteers to help them out.

This year will be a massive celebration of the dedication of volunteers, Kuuku Ya’u Land Trust Rangers, Lockhart River School students, QPWS rangers, and community members over the years.

Tangaroa Blue 2021 Clean-Ups

Captain Billy Landing: May 24-28
Mapoon: July 4-8
Chilli Beach: August 1-5
Five Beaches Loop: September 14-18

Cape York Weekly 17 May 2021

This article appeared in Cape York Weekly, 17 May 2021.

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