Professional fishermen from Sydney and local community members will take to the waters and land on March 3rd to collect rubbish for Clean Up Australia Day in an effort to keep Sydney Harbour healthy.
Representatives from OceanWatch Australia, Sydney Fish Market and the seafood industry will accompany a group of local school aged children from Glebe Youth Services to conduct a rubbish collection at a registered Clean Up Australia Day site located in Kissing Point Park, Putney. The initiative of OceanWatch Australia is sponsored by Sydney Fish Market and aims to support the fishing community in educating young children in ways they can be involved in caring for their local environment.
“Our waterways are littered with rubbish that doesn’t belong in there. Plastic bottles, cigarette butts, shopping bags, clothing, the list is endless. Some of this marine debris comes from human activity at sea, and some makes its way into our waterways from land.
“We want to take this opportunity to encourage young people to become stewards of their environment and learn all they can about protecting their local areas” said OceanWatch Australia representative Elle Leontiev.
The Clean Up Australia Day event is aimed at combating debris in terrestrial and intertidal areas. Children will focus on the land clean up while other volunteers will participate in a special in-water clean up to get to the hardest to reach plastic.
After cleaning up the local park areas, fishermen will ferry the students around the harbour to learn about marine debris and issues relating to plastic pollution while working at sea.
“The seafood industry is keen to be a part of keeping Australia beautiful. The ocean is our place of work so keeping plastic off the land and out of the water is vital. It’s a great day to get kids involved and inspire them to care of their local areas” said professional fisherman Diego Bagnato.
Clean Up Australia is owned by the community and in 2017 all Australians are urged to support participants by either sponsoring a site or donating via the website or Facebook. 100% of funds raised is allocated to the purchase of clean up materials provided free of charge to community, school and youth groups across the nation year-round.
For more information about the initiative and to donate to the OceanWatch Australia fundraising efforts please go to our clean up page here.
OceanWatch Australia is a national resource management organisation recognised and supported by the Australia Government.