Serena Kirby, Denmark Bulletin
More than a dozen happy helpers have given Prawn Rock Channel a much-needed clean up organised by marine wildlife conservation group, Sea Shepherd.
Sea Shepherd’s regional coordinator Rhedyn Dekker said she was always amazed at the quantity and diversity of objects they found.
“There’s always thongs, plastic bottles, fishing line and loads of nappy wipes and cigarette butts,” Rhedyn said.
“Sometimes we also find special items and recently we found a wedding ring and were fortunate enough to be able to return it to its owner.”
On another clean-up day near Albany the clean-up crew even found a hot water system washed up on a beach.
A pre-Christmas clean up at Greens Pool had resulted in a trailer load full of rubbish with much of it found among the sand dunes.
In the recent channel clean up multiple bags of rubbish were collected with many volunteers focusing on looking for smaller micro plastics.
Regular swimmer at Prawn Rock Channel Sara Patane said she always made a point of caring for the channel by picking up rubbish during her visits.
She was instilling the same habit in her young daughters by bringing them to the Sea Shepherd event.
Sara said while it was easy to spot larger rubbish, by focusing on smaller things lots of plastic bottle tops, straws and micro plastics were found.
Sea Shepherd is an international not-for-profit organisation that focuses on protection of the ocean’s ecosystems. They hold regular beach clean ups around Australia as part of the organisation’s ‘Stem The Tide’ campaign to reduce marine plastic pollution.
Marine debris is a major danger to a wide range of marine life including seabirds, fish and marine mammals.
It can lead to injury or death of marine life through drowning, entanglement or starvation following ingestion.
Rhedyn hopes that anyone who enjoys using Prawn Rock Channel will also share the responsibility of caring for the marine life that lives there.
The next Sea Shepherd beach clean up in the Denmark area is planned for April and anyone interested in pitching in can check the organisation’s website or their Great Southern social media page for dates and locations. www.seashepherd.org.au
See all the pictures in the issue.
This article appeared in the Denmark Bulletin, 7 March 2024.
