Recreational Fishers Clean Up the Coorong

Over 45 bags and 6 cubic meters of rubbish were cleaned up by recreational fishers from one of Australia’s most iconic beaches – Ocean Beach in the Coorong, South Australia. OzFish Coorong Chapter recently organised the innovative new concept for their annual long-weekend beach clean-up. 

Utilising the strong community of 4WDers in the region, OzFish volunteers set up a marshalling area at the Tea Tree Crossing beach dunes entry, handing out recycled hessian garbage bags to four-wheel drivers entering the beach. These volunteers were encouraged to return the individually coded bags full of marine debris as a way to help the local marine environment.  

South Australian OzFish Program Manager Dr Michael Sierp was pleased with the work that was achieved.  

“We saw a range of litter items removed from the beach, including plastic, ropes, nets, polystyrene eskys, buoys and baitpots. 

“Larger items were also retrieved this year including several large discarded rusty gazebos.

“When litter is dropped on land, the wind and rain carry it to our waterways where it is very difficult to remove. It ends up here on our beachers or out in the ocean. These efforts protect the local fishery, birdlife, and beach aesthetics,” said Dr Sierp.

In 2019, the CSIRO stated that Australians ingest approximately one credit card of microplastics every week and it’s been estimated that 100 000 marine species have eaten, been entangled or died as a result of plastics in the last 12 months.  

“Any efforts to remove plastic waste from our environment is incredibly important. So many of us enjoy these areas for recreational activities as it makes sense that we give something back by cleaning up. 

“We were especially grateful for support from the Coorong District Council who funded a new clean up trailer used by OzFish for waste disposal,” said Michael.  

Participants on the day also went into a raffle with generous prizes donated from BCF Victor Harbour, Goolwa Pippi Co, the Marine Fishers Association (MFA), Cape Calamari and 2KW FishBank restaurant. 

Local OzFish volunteers are already planning next year’s event to make it bigger and better. Now in it’s third year, OzFish Coorong Chapter President Levi Nash was enthusiastic about the future of the annual clean-ups.  

“Protecting this beach from the build-up of rubbish that floats in is really important.  

“Talking to the 4wders about what we’re doing with the clean ups and having pretty much all of them join in was great to see. 

“This year we set up at Tea Tree Crossing beach, but next year we hope to set up an additional area at 42 Mile Crossing beach handing out clean-up bags. We’ll also start a day earlier which will capture the majority of the vessel traffic to the beach,” said Levi. 

All of the litter collected was sorted, counted, and will be entered into the Australian Marine Debris Database which is used by researchers to determine the best way to combat marine litter.