The Sea World Research & Rescue Foundation is joining forces with Environmental Divers to assist the group to conduct 365 Diveable Days of dives on the Gold Coast to tackle marine debris.
Completed over 365 diveable days, this initiative is will be the longest continual marine debris data survey ever attempted with Environmental Divers targeting the North Wall, Eastern end of South Wall of the Spit, Wavebreak Island and South West Wall of South Stradbroke Island.
Sea World Director of Marine Sciences, Trevor Long said this is a great initiative by the Environmental Divers group as marine debris is a major issue in South-East Queensland Waterways
“We are proud to assist Environment Divers on their mission to reduce marine debris with the Sea World Research & Rescue Foundation providing vessels and divers to join their team on their clean ups on selected days in the seaway,” he said.
“Today the Sea World divers joined the Environmental Divers to conduct a mock clean-up at Shark Bay’s Tropical Reef Pool where both teams honed their skills in debris collecting, sorting and data entry updates.
“At Sea World we see first-hand the effects of marine debris are having on marine wildlife with many injured birds, turtles and dolphins coming into our care with injuries due to human interaction such as fishing line and netting entanglements, swallowing plastic bags or being hooked.”
Kelly Fletcher from Environmental Divers said marine debris is a growing issue globally as it is very much a case of out of sight out of mind.
“What we are aiming to do with 365 Diveable Days of Debris is bring the issue of marine debris to the surface and allow people to see what is happening in our waterways and oceans,” she said.
“As a heavily used waterway, the Gold Coast Broadwater and Seaway are the perfect place to undergo this challenge. By documenting 365 days of debris data this will assist planning for local, state and federal governments with planning moving forward and finding ways to combat and prevent the debris and rubbish from entering the waterways in the first place.”
For more information about the Sea World Research & Rescue Foundation please visit http://seaworld.com.au/research-and-rescue or call 13 33 86
