Marine Debris

Marine Debris – what is it?

Marine debris is typically defined as any man-made object discarded, disposed of, or abandoned that enters the coastal or marine environment. It may enter directly from a ship, or indirectly when washed out to sea via rivers, streams and storm drains.

How does it impact the environment?

Human behaviour has created the marine debris problem.

100,000 marine animals and 1 million sea birds die every year from ingesting or becoming entangled in marine debris.

In every square mile of ocean is an estimated 46,000 pieces of marine debris.

When plastics break down in the ocean environment they never biodegrade, they just break down into smaller and smaller pieces of plastic until they form a fine plastic powder. Some plastics take well over 600 years to break down into this fine powder which will remain in the environment forever.

Every day ships throughout the world dispose of 5.5 million items of waste into our oceans.

Three times as much rubbish is dumped into the world’s oceans annually as the weight of fish caught.

Over 6 million tons of debris finds its way into the world’s oceans every year.

What is the National Marine Debris Initiative?

The initiative aims at empowering individuals and community groups to adopt their local stretch of coast and work on proactive ways or removing and reducing the amount of marine debris impacting their marine ecosystem through beach cleanups and community education.

The initiative engages with volunteers, community groups, industry and government agencies and other environmental organisations in making a positive and sustainable impact on marine debris.

Surfrider Foundation Australia is proud to partner with Tangaroa Blue to launch the National Marine Debris Initiative.

The Tangaroa Blue and Surfrider Foundation Australia National Marine Debris Initiative is not just a beach clean up. Data is collected on items found, which is then collated and wherever possible traced to the source. This assists in creating a picture on the impact of debris in specific locations.

By then working with the community as well as government agencies and industry, it is possible to make changes in the design or use of these items, as well as legislation and educational strategies so these items do not end up on our beaches in the first place.

All data collected is submitted to our Marine Debris Database which is made available to all stakeholders for research and educational purposes.

Volunteers involved in the Marine Debris Projects have removed more than 500,000 pieces of marine debris during beach and coastal clean ups since 2004. Each piece of debris collected is no longer a threat to marine life and seabirds, helping to keep the ocean environment healthier.

So what can you do?

We invite individuals and groups of the community as well as members of Surfrider Australia to to visit their local beach and regularly participate in cleanups.

You can participate in a cleanup as part of the National Marine Debris Initiative by registering your location and volunteers.

For ongoing cleanups, you can also register here:

Step 1: Register you volunteers and cleanup location

Step 2: Download the Cleanup Sheet

Step 3: Submit your data to the National Marine Debris database through the instructions on the cleanup sheet form.

Find out more about marine debris and here at oceancare.org.au
For more information and to regsiter contact Heidi Taylor at heidi@oceancare.org.au
Looking for information on the Tassie Cleanup? Check it out here.

Marine Debris Resources
surfline.com.au