Adrift Lab contributes to Larapuna community event

Last weekend the #AdriftLab team was honored (and oh-so-excited) to return to Larapuna Country in remote north-eastern Lutruwita. Alongside the Tebrakunna Rangers and volunteers from Wildcare Tasmania, we removed 1000s of sea spurge saplings (an coastal plant) and #MarineDebris from around 15 km of remote and otherwise pristine coastline (in total, volunteers covered >40 km of coast over 4 days but we could only join them for 2 days).

There are no vehicles allowed on Tassie’s spectacular beaches, so we were treated to abundant wildlife: seals, shorebirds, wallabies and so much wombat scat!

Heaps of data was collected for conservation and science:

• The location of the sea spurge was mapped over 40 km, and we are thrilled to report that on some beaches, the Larapuna Community Weekend (an annual event) has been so successful, we struggle to find sea spurge anymore!
• All debris items (plastics, glass, etc) was sorted on behalf of Tangaroa Blue Foundation and entered into the national #AMDI database (thanks Pete!)
• We reported 2 dead #seahorses to Sea Dragon Search and 2 fur seals to iNaturalist.org, and recorded another dead gannet (added to our beached-bird database).

Big thanks to Eerin, Alex, Andrew, Polly, Mary, and Amanda for the photos, food, and laughter #CaringforCountry #InvasiveWeeds #PlasticPollution #AboriginalRangers #ProtectWhatYouLove #volunteering #CitizenScience