In early December last year, Butchulla Land and Sea rangers participated in a training day with ReefClean partners Conservation Volunteers Australia. A marine debris clean and audit was completed at Eli Creek, a popular local fishing spot and unfortunately a dumping ground for residential waste.

Over 200kgs was removed from the tidal creek with each item counted, categorised and inputted into the Australian Marine Debris Initiative Database (AMDI) as part of the 5-year ReefClean project lead by Tangaroa Blue.

Butchulla Land and Sea Rangers will now be able to use their training to report through data for all of their clean-ups that they regularly do as caring for the Burnett Mary region. The recently released AMDI app makes recording data and even taking photos of found items easy enough for everyone to do, even during your morning walk. 

The ReefClean project launched in October 2018 – June 2023 and is funded by the Australian Government’s Reef Trust until June 2023. The ReefClean project is designed to deliver actions that:

• reduce the volume of marine debris generated in or entering the Great Barrier Reef that may impact listed threatened and migratory species, such as dugongs and turtles, and ecosystems of the Great Barrier Reef, and
• increase awareness in Reef catchment communities about the issue of marine debris and actions they can undertake to prevent litter from entering Reef waterways. 

ReefClean activities include community clean-up events, monitoring clean-up events, school engagement activities, community presentations and displays, source reduction workshops and projects and reporting and data analysis and are delivered across the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area and its catchment covering all 6 NRM regions (Cape York, Wet Tropics, Burdekin, Mackay Whitsundays, Fitzroy and Burnett Mary).

Article contributed by Linda Fahle, CVA/ReefClean in conjunction with the Butchulla Land and Sea Rangers