Taking Part in the Larapuna Clean Up

Photography by Andrew Fidler

Adrift Lab took part in a beach clean up event at the Bay of Fire on Tasmania’s east coast. The community-organised event saw over eighty participants collect, count, and sort over 1000 items of marine debris from ~20km of remote beach inside Mt William National Park.

During the two day trip, Peter, Megan, Catarina, Lillian, and Dr Morgan Gilmour gave two minute speed talks to the community about their research.

“It was a great experience to share our research with such receptive and active community members”

— Lillian Stewart, Adrift Lab Researcher

In addition to cleaning the beach of marine debris, participants in the clean up removed hundreds of invasive sea spurge plants. These plants are detrimental to the environment, as they displace native vegetation and alter the structure of beaches.

Participants in the cleanup were audience to a Welcome to Country and Smoking Ceremony hosted by Danny and Linton from the Larapuna Indigenous Rangers.

“It was a very welcoming and unique experience to be part of”

— Catarina Serra Goncalves, Adrift Lab Researcher

The debris data collected during the trip was uploaded to Tangaroa Blue’s AMDI database, where it will be used by researchers from Adrift Lab and other research groups to analyse global trends in plastic pollution.

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Adrift Lab would like to thank the Tasmanian Walking Company and the Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water, and the Environment for their support in organising and running the trip.