Wader Beach for Birds not Litter
October 2014 to October 2015
Final report on the Litter Hotspots Project for Williamstown.
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Project Sponsors
Project Partners
Prepared and published by the Wader Beach for Birds not Litter project Team Co-ordinator Dr Marilyn Olliff Treasurer Friends of Williamstown Wetlands. www.friendsofwilliamstownwetlands.org.au www.facebook/FOWWInc
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Contents
1. Introduction ...... 4 2. Litter hotspots program ...... 6 3. Litter survey ...... 7 4. Partnerships and community involvement ...... 13 5. Planning for the future at Wader Beach ...... 18 6. Wader Beach clean up ...... 20 7. ‘Wader Beach for Birds not Litter’ conclusion ...... 21
Google map showing the general areas of Wader Beach and Greenwich Bay. Greenwich Bay
Wader Beach
Acknowledgements This project was funded by the Metropolitan Waste and Resource Recovery Group as part of the Victorian Government’s Litter Hotspots Program. Friends of Williamstown Wetlands provided overall coordination for the project with significant support from volunteers from Friends of Williamstown Wetlands, Friends of Greenwich Bay, Jawbone Marine Sanctuary Care Group, Scab Duty and 3016 Beach Patrol. Port Phillip Eco-Centre provided significant assistance at the start of the project and undertook the litter analysis. Hobsons Bay City Council entered into a partnership with Friends of Williamstown Wetlands and contributed additional funds and in-kind assistance. Parks Victoria provided support with site access and safety risk assessments. Report author: Dr Marilyn Olliff, Treasurer, Friends of Williamstown Wetlands. Photographs were provided by FOWW, PPEC, JMSCG.
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1. Introduction
Friends of Williamstown Wetlands Incorporated (FOWW) is a group of volunteers that have worked to maintain and enhance the Jawbone Reserve in Williamstown for many years. The group has recently been working on a bird hide in Paisley-Challis Wetlands at the western end of the reserve, adjacent to a secluded stretch of beach locally known as Wader Beach.
Wader Beach stretches along Port Phillip Bay for about 800 metres from the Paisley-Challis Drain into the western end of the Jawbone Marine Sanctuary. The beach is an environmentally sensitive area. Potential visitors are deterred by difficulty of access, which helps to protect it. It is home to local water birds and, in the summer months, to many migratory birds from the northern hemisphere. The beach is fringed with saltmarsh, which protects the shoreline as a feeding ground for birds and provides nurseries for a wide range of marine life.
Wader Beach
Kororoit Creek
Paisley- Challis drain
‘Saltmarsh’ refers to a coastal ecosystem between land and saltwater. It is fast disappearing around Port Phillip Bay due to the impact of a growing human population. An important aspect of the beach that helps to maintain its remnant saltmarsh and make it a relatively safe place for the birds to visit is that it has always been fairly isolated. An abattoir existed on the shoreline in the 1800s and in 1877 the Victorian Rifle Association established a rifle range across the entire area now known as Jawbone Reserve. The abattoir ceased to operate early on but the rifle range didn’t close until 1990. The existence of the rifle range meant that the area remained largely untouched by European settlement. While this has been beneficial to the retention of the saltmarsh ecosystem, the beach has not been cleared of litter for many years resulting in a significant build-up of waste.
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Red-necked stints migrate from their nesting grounds in Siberia to Victoria, including Wader Beach, for the summer months.
FOWW raised concerns about the amount of litter accumulating on Wader Beach with Hobsons Bay City Council (HBCC) and Parks Victoria (PV) and sought funding from the Metropolitan Waste and Resource Recovery Group (MWRRG) under their Litter Hotspots Program. The purpose of the funding was to identify the major source and nature of the litter that was building up on Wader Beach The overall aim is to clean up the beach to protect this valuable environment.
Jawbone Marine Sanctuary Care Group (JMSCG) volunteered to assist with the project by providing in-kind help. JMSCG are particularly interested in the protection of the Jawbone Marine Sanctuary, which extends into Wader Beach.
At the start of the project, the scope was expanded to include a litter survey at Greenwich Bay at the request of the Friends of Greenwich Bay (FOGB).
Greenwich Bay is on the western banks of the Yarra where it flows into Port Phillip Bay. It is a popular area for recreational anglers, dog walkers, other pedestrians and cyclists who use the path passing through the area. The car park also serves as an out-of-the-way place for people to socialise at night.
FOGB collecting litter along the Yarra
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2. Litter hotspots program
Grant application
MWRRG administer the Litter Hotspots Project as part of the Victorian Government’s A Cleaner Yarra River and Port Phillip Bay – A Plan of Action. The purpose of the project is to protect the unique natural assets of the Yarra River and Port Phillip Bay. The Litter Hotspots Project provides targeted funding and grants programs to support local government, business and community partnership initiatives to tackle litter in their local areas. (www.mwrrg.vic.gov.au/local-government/grants-and-funding).
In August 2014 FOWW applied for a grant from MWRRG to undertake a survey of the litter at Wader Beach. HBCC agreed to be our project partners and have contributed funds and in-kind help to provide us with support. In October 2014 FOWW was awarded the grant and commenced work by contacting Port Phillip Eco-Centre (PPEC) for advice and assistance. PPEC is a major participant in the overall Litter Hotspots Project and is focused on understanding and addressing litter problems in Port Phillip Bay. FOGB approached FOWW and asked to join the project by undertaking a similar survey in Greenwich Bay, which also has a significant litter problem.
Project objectives
The key purpose of the Wader Beach project is to protect the ecosystems of Wader Beach by investigating the nature and source of the litter on Wader Beach as well as developing an action plan to clean up the area and minimise future build-up of litter.
Litter comes in all sizes, from macro to very small
Under the conditions of the grant, FOWW undertook to deliver the following objectives as part of their Litter Hotspots Project.
Objective 1 Understand the nature and extent of litter on Wader Beach and nearby locations.
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Objective 2 Build partnerships to develop volunteer capacity for litter projects. Objective 3 Formulate an action plan to reduce future build up of litter. Objective 4 Work together to improve the condition of Wader Beach.
Details of how these objectives were met are set out in sections 3 to 6 of this report.
3. Litter survey
In order to meet Objective 1 Understand the nature and extent of litter on Wader Beach and nearby locations, the following tasks were undertaken.
a. A litter survey was conducted at Wader Beach and at Greenwich Bay during the six-month period December 2014 to May 2015. b. Litter observations were made at the waterways that led into Port Phillip Bay at the western end of Wader Beach, namely Paisley-Challis drain and Kororoit Creek. c. General litter collections at Wader Beach away from the survey sites were undertaken to provide additional information on the types of litter on the beach.
One of the concerns for FOWW was that environmental damage might be caused by volunteers visiting Wader Beach. In addition, there was a need to address any safety issues for the volunteers themselves. To minimise this concern, a brochure was developed and distributed to all volunteers, setting out safety requirements and raising awareness of the environmental sensitivity of the area. A copy of the brochure is provided as a separate document.
As Wader Beach is within Parks Victoria management area, PV undertook a job safety analysis and provided volunteer coordinators with a check-list for on-site use and a ‘sign-in’ sheet for insurance purposes. Greenwich Bay is managed by HBCC and so FOWW extended its insurance cover to include the volunteers at Greenwich Bay for the duration of the project.
All volunteers were given a verbal introduction to the sites and the environmental and safety issues before commencing work.
Wader Beach and Greenwich Bay surveys
The two areas, Wader Beach and Greenwich Bay are very different, one being on the western shoreline of Port Phillip Bay with little or no public access and the other being a popular recreational area for families and fishermen along the banks of the Yarra. FOWW and FOGB applied the same survey methodology in both areas under the guidance of PPEC.
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Neil Blake of PPEC visited Wader Beach and Greenwich Bay on a number of occasions throughout the project to provide advice on selecting litter monitoring sites, collecting data, and general activities related to a litter survey.
Three locations were selected at Wader Beach to provide a wide coverage of this shallow, curved but otherwise fairly uniform bay. At each location two 4x4 metre sites were marked out, one just above the mean high water mark (MHW) (the low site) and a second parallel site a further 4 m inland (the high site). The high sites were selected to be just above a low (~0.5 m) bank above the beach gravel/sand mix and that contained some permanent coastal vegetation.
Two locations were selected at Greenwich Bay, with two 4x4 metre sites at each location Volunteers collected and identified all the litter in each survey site on a monthly basis.
A data recording sheet had been developed based on the litter sheets used by the Victorian Litter Action Alliance (www.litter.vic.gov.au), the Port Phillip Eco- Centre (www.ecocentre.com), and the Tangaroa Blue Marine Debris Initiative (http://www.tangaroablue.org), with some key litter items added/removed following initial visual surveys of the litter at Wader Beach. Peter Smith of FOWW and Maria McGuane of FOGB led the monitoring teams in litter collection and identification from Wader Beach and Greenwich Bay respectively.
At the end of the six-month period, FOWW sent all the survey data to PPEC for analysis and to produce a report that included recommendations for future actions. The PPEC report is provided as a separate document to this report.
Peter Smith, Karen Manley (FOWW) and David Speller (JMSCG) monitoring the litter at Wader Beach.
There are some differences between the types of litter collected from Wader Beach and that from Greenwich Bay. The most common type at Wader Beach was small plastic pieces, whereas at Greenwich Bay it was polystyrene pieces. Some small plastic pieces in the high sites at Wader Beach appeared to be derived from single plastic bags that had broken up once entangled in the weed matt (uniform colour and thickness, brittle, and clustered in one spot in the weed
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matt). However, at the lower sites the wide variety of small plastic pieces (colour, shape, and thickness) would indicate multiple sources of plastic. Those pieces that could be identified included parts of plastic bags (grey, black, blue, clear, and clip tops), parts of plastic cutlery, parts of plastic toys, parts of plastic bottles and straws, plastic ties, plastic wrap, and ice-cream spoons. These small plastic pieces would have been missed in a large scale litter survey based on counts over 100m transects along the beach. Surveyors needed to be on hands and knees sifting through the weed matt to identify and count the small plastic pieces.
The weed matt was dominated by seagrass (Zostera) with smaller volumes of red, green, and brown algae, and to a lesser extent sponges, in various stages of decay. Observation of recently washed-up weed matt at Williamstown Beach during autumn 2015 (http://www.beachpatrol.com.au/BeachGroups/3016) showed that this weed matt, although dominated by algae with little seagrass, also contained similar small pieces of assorted plastic items. It would appear likely that the small plastic pieces are “picked up” by the weed matt as it forms, rather than from the breakdown of plastic items once deposited on the shore. Such small plastic items are a danger to marine life in Port Phillip Bay. During the surveys, volunteers observed terrestrial birds and silver gulls sorting through the weed matt looking for food, reinforcing the view that the small pieces of plastic might be ingested by birds. Ingestion of small plastic pieces by seabirds has been reported from major oceanic regions around the world.
Pieces of broken glass (green, brown, and clear colours) were the second most common litter item at Wader Beach and were found each month, but always at just one site, ML. There was no decline in counts over the survey period and it is possible that there is a lot of broken glass around the ML site, partially buried in the sand/shingle and this is turned over by wave action during storms to continually reveal new pieces. Most of the glass pieces were partially smooth indicating beach erosion. Pieces of broken glass were the fourth most common item at Greenwich Bay, and although dominant in the low River site, were found at all sites, and were for the most part recently broken glass with no signs of beach erosion.
Further details of the differences in litter items between Wader Beach and Greenwich Bay are set out in the PPEC report. Litter trapping trials in Paisley-Challis drain
There are two freshwater outlets into Port Phillip Bay at the western end of Wader Beach: Paisley-Challis outlet and Kororoit Creek. Two drainage systems, Paisley drain and Challis drain, run through Paisley-Challis wetlands and join into a single flow into the bay. The drains are affected by tidal flow from the bay all the way up to Kororoit Creek Road.
FOWW ran some trials to check for litter coming down the drainage systems that may contribute to the load on Wader Beach. Paisley drain runs through a light industrial area north of Kororoit Creek Road, but is usually dry until it goes
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under the road and meets the tidal inflow from the Bay. Challis drain is part of the stormwater system coming from Newport and also runs under Kororoit Creek Road. Challis drain is smaller but there is usually a flow from its catchment area.
Looking down Paisley drain towards Port Phillip Bay.
Challis drain
Nick Olliff (JMSCG) and Peter Smith (FOWW) trialled a netting system to collect litter downstream of the junction of the two drains. The amount of seagrass coming in with the tide clogged up the nets and so alterative methods for trapping data were considered but have not yet been attempted.
PPEC loaned a Manta net to the project in an attempt to catch litter further upstream. A Manta net is usually towed behind a boat and so captures litter as it is trawled along in the flow. The water flows in the drains were not significant enough to enable the net to be successfully deployed, however, a few items of plastic litter were collected coming downstream.
Nick Olliff, Ian Rae and Peter Smith try out Paisley drain in the industrial area the net.
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Nick Olliff prepares the Manta net Just not enough flow in Challis drain!
Observations in Paisley Challis wetlands showed that a significant amount of litter was washed in by high tides. Further work is needed to monitor litter in the stormwater drainage system in this area.
Observations in Kororoit Creek
Kororoit Creek is a relatively large creek flowing for some 52 kilometres from north-west of Melton to Port Phillip Bay. The mouth of Kororoit Creek opens in to the Bay near the start of Wader Beach. There are a number of small boat ramps at the mouth of the creek and the area is often used by recreational fishermen. The creek is tidal up to a ford at Racecourse Road. Beyond that point, the vegetation on both sides of the creek acts as a litter trap for any litter flowing downstream. While there is a significant build up of litter along the creek, none was observed crossing the ford. More observations are needed following strong rainstorms.
Litter collections by Scab Duty
Scab Duty is a social media movement for everyone to start taking responsibility for the litter that we see everyday on the street, http://scabduty.com
Scab Duty provided the workforce to clean up our survey sites at the start of the project.
Nicko Lunardi leading Scab Duty in cleaning up our first survey site.
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In Williamstown and Newport, Scab Duty volunteers spend two hours every week picking up and sorting litter to clean up our area for the wildlife. On their weekly litter pick-ups, they collect litter outside our survey sites (but in the same general area) at both Wader Beach and Greenwich Bay.
After picking up litter for an hour, Scab Duty volunteers sort the litter to determine types of litter that accumulate. The chart shows the number of items for the top twenty litter types collected over 12 weeks at Wader Beach.
1600 1400
1200 Number of 1000 items of the top 20 litter 800 types from 600 Wader Beach from a total of 400 12 hours of 200 collection. 0
Straws bottles bait bags Rope<1m Kids Toys
bottle tops plastic cups ear cleaners Misc Plastics Footwear inc sauce packets confectionery Balloon string plastic cutlery parking tickets Food containers Lollie pop sticks cigarette lighters polystyrene pieces plastic ilm/plastic
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4. Partnerships and community involvement
Objective 2 Partnerships to build volunteer capacity for litter projects has been achieved through local networking and meetings with people from other community groups. In addition, FOWW has developed this report along with PPEC’s litter analysis to provide information about our litter project that may be useful for other community groups.
The following list identifies the partnerships and community relationships built as part of this project.
Hobsons Bay City Council are our key partners, providing support through in- kind help and a cash contribution. In particular, HBCC has provided assistance through Shaun Young, Waste and Litter Community Engagement Officer, Andrew Webster, Senior Conservation Ranger and Libby Rigby, Conservation Ranger.
Day one at Wader Beach with Ian Rae (FOWW), Maria McGuane (FOGB), April Seymore (PPEC), Libby Rigby (HBCC) and Neil Blake (Baykeeper, PPEC).
Port Phillip Eco-Centre provided advice and encouragement with the litter surveys, analysed our litter data and made recommendations for future actions. Neil Blake visited Wader Beach and Greenwich Bay several times throughout the project to share his expertise as a consultant to the project. He helped us develop a methodology for the survey that would provide useful data.
Friends of Greenwich Bay conducted a litter survey in their area using the methodology developed by FOWW and PPEC. Their data are included in the PPEC analysis report. FOGB also participated in a number of meetings in relation to the project.
Jawbone Marine Sanctuary Care Group joined us in the project at Wader Beach. They have participated in some of the monthly surveys. JMSCG will be assisting in the clean up weekend at Wader Beach in August by providing BBQ equipment and coordinating volunteers. JMSCG often works alongside FOWW in
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Jawbone Reserve, caring for the marine sanctuary while FOWW concentrates on vegetation regeneration and freshwater testing.
Scab Duty gave a great deal of their time and support to the project by providing ‘on the ground’ help and data on the types of litter in the area. They also assisted with the clean up weekend and the community event in October.
Parks Victoria provided support with safety advice and removal of bags of litter from Jawbone Reserve following Scab Duty activities. Our liaison officer at PV was Emily Verey and is now Tamara Vekich.
Melbourne Water has provided some advice about the waterways. Richard Akers of MW organised a meeting at HBCC at the start of the project to bring a range of groups together as representatives of ‘Western Shorelines’. This was particularly useful in networking with other groups in the area.
Werribee River Association provided advice on litter in waterways.
John Forrester (Werribee River Keeper) talks about litter to Richard Akers (Melbourne Water), Nick Olliff (JMSCG) and Peter Smith (FOWW).
3016Beach patrol participated in Clean Up Australia Day and assisted with our clean up weekend at Wader Beach, on 1st and 2nd August. The group also provided significant help with organising the community event in October.
Friends of Westgate Park have also conducted a litter survey on the other side of the Yarra to Greenwich Bay. Some of their data have been discussed in the PPEC analysis as they have a problem with litter from the Yarra, similar to that at Greenwich Bay.
Friends of Lower Kororoit Creek have expressed interest in future litter surveys along the creek. In the future, FOWW will organise a trip along Kororoit Creek with FOLKC to check out the amount of litter trapped in the reed beds.
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Clean Up Australia Day in March was a great success at Wader Beach and Greenwich Bay with many groups participating and two skips of waste collected.
Neil Blake assists FOWW clean up at the Paisley-Challis wetlands.
3016 Beach Patrol, Scab Duty and many others sort some of the litter collected from Wader Beach on the day.
JMSCG pile up their full bags from the eastern end of Jawbone Reserve at the end of the day.
Friends of Greenwich Bay collecting litter on Clean up Australia Day from Riverside Spit Reserve, Greenwich Bay
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Conversations for the Curious, an active conversations group in Williamstown, held a discussion on litter, led by Marilyn Olliff (FOWW). They were keen to hear about the project and how they can help at future events.
Conversations for the Curious at ‘The Corner,’ Melbourne Road, Williamstown.
Local schools were invited to attend a teacher professional development workshop at St Mary’s Primary School on 15th October. Sandra Thorn (FOWW), Dominique Dybala (St Mary’s Primary School) and Neil Blake (the Baykeeper) facilitated the workshop. The workshop provided an opportunity to develop and support citizen environmental science projects into the curriculum in local schools and included a viewing of the Baykeeper documentary on litter in the Bay. An interesting and lively discussion followed the documentary and each school was presented with a copy of the DVD to use as a resource much to the delight of the teachers.
The teacher workshop was well attended with participants from Williamstown Primary School, St Mary's PS, Williamstown North PS, Williamstown High, and Westbourne Grammar. School council parents from SMPS were also there as well as the HBCC Ranger. Neil and Bronnie (PPEC) also spoke about ideas for school activities and the availability of support from the PPEC to work with students to protect the Bay.
End of project celebration.
FOWW held an Open Day on 25th October 2015 at Williamstown High School, Bayview Campus, which is adjacent to Jawbone Reserve. Over fifty people attended and watched the Baykeeper documentary on litter in the Bay.
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All project partners were represented at the Open Day. Aretha Stewart-Brown, an indigenous student at the school, welcomed us to country and Ian Rae, President of FOWW, gave a summary of FOWW activities and the Litter Hotspot Project.
Harry Brown and Mick Morley led a litter hunt and pick up for the 3016 Beach Patrol families.
Suzette Rodoredo, HBCC ranger, and Richard Leppitt (FOWW) led a walk and talk for the friends group participants.
The event included lunch and BBQ with music from Harry’s Band. The event was a great success based on the very positive feedback that we have received. We have gained several new members for the groups and are building on our relationship with the school by planning joint environmental projects in the future.
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5. Planning for the future at Wader Beach
One of the key concerns of FOWW is that just cleaning up the litter is not sufficient. Stopping the litter at its source is of primary importance. We may improve the beach for a season, but more litter will soon build up following storms and rainfall events. Objective 3 Formulate action plan to reduce future build up of litter and prevent remobilisation of litter is to make sure that the ‘Wader Beach for Birds’ project will set the way forward for managing litter in the area.
The PPEC report finds that a significant source of litter is most likely to be from stormwater drainage systems to the west of Wader Beach. These drainage systems flow into Port Phillip Bay at Altona, Laverton and the shoreline further to the west. They are within the municipalities of HBCC and Wyndham City Council.
In contrast, litter at Greenwich Bay comes down the Yarra as well as from local users of the recreational area. Very little litter reaches Greenwich Bay from Port Phillip Bay. Litter is most likely to come from the municipality of Maribyrnong down Stony Creek and stormwater drains in the area, as well as litter coming from further upstream of the Yarra and Maribyrnong Rivers.
PPEC recommendations from the analysis of the litter survey are:
Examine Hobsons Bay Council area drainage infrastructure maps to identify potential major sources of litter.
Examine Wyndham Council area drainage infrastructure maps to identify potential major sources of litter.
Conduct regular audits of identified litter hotspots in the region.
Friends of Williamstown Wetlands and Hobsons Bay City Council participate in regular ‘Western Shorelines’ meetings convened by Melbourne Water.
Investigate opportunities for HBCC and Wyndham City Council to engage other user groups in litter education reduction campaigns.
Seek grants for continuing audits and analysis of litter quadrats at Wader Beach and Greenwich Bay.
Continue to build relationships with other local groups who are interested in reducing single use plastics.
Additional recommendations from FOGB are:
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Examine Maribyrnong City Council area drainage infrastructure to identify potential major sources of litter.
Set up regular six-monthly meetings of all stakeholders including Maribyrnong City Council to review and update the Action Plan arising from the Wader Beach for Birds not Litter project.
This project has made significant steps forward in examining the litter problems, but there is still much work to be done. One of the key issues is minimising litter at source so that it will not continue to build up in the area as it did in the past. In August 2015 FOWW held a workshop with HBCC, PPEC, FOGB, JMSCG, Werribee River Keeper, the Baykeeper and other interested parties to discuss the findings of the survey and set future actions.
An Action plan was developed and presented to HBCC for approval. The Action Plan is available on the FOWW website
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6. Wader Beach clean up
In addition to addressing litter at the source, a Winter Clean Up at Wader Beach was held to prevent the remobilisation of litter already there. Objective 4 Improve condition of wader beach, sets out this issue.
Flyer for the Winter Clean Up
It is important that we clean up Wader Beach during the winter months before the migratory birds return, so FOWW, JMSCG, Scab Duty and 3016 Beach Patrol organised a clean up weekend on the 1st and 2nd of August.
Volunteer coordinators from JMSCG, Scab Duty, 3016 Beach Patrol and FOWW shepherded groups of volunteers along a dedicated path to ensure that minimal disturbance occurred to the local vegetation and wildlife. The event was promoted through social media by Scab Duty and 3016 Beach Patrol and was advertised by HBCC Conservation rangers and the local newspapers.
Over 70 volunteers signed in over the weekend, some staying for 2-3 hours and some attending for the entire weekend. JMSCG cooked a BBQ on each day and drinks and other refreshments were available. A 12 cubic metre bin was filled to the brim.
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7. ‘Wader Beach for Birds not Litter’ conclusion
The project began in October 2014, and although the project was due to end on the 31 July 2015, FOWW was given an extension to the end of October 2015 for the final grant acquittal.
Date Task October 2014 Commencement of project. October/November 2014 Development of survey methodology, including site visits and trials November 2014 FOWW stakes out survey sites, Scab Duty prepares sites by cleaning up litter. December 2014 to May 2015 Six months of litter survey. June 2015 Data submitted to PPEC, draft report developed. July 2015 Analysis finalised and FOWW report developed. Interim grant acquittal sent to MWRRG August 2015 Workshop with all partners to develop action plan Clean up weekend August 2015 to October 2015 School visits to engage the students with our litter projects. October 2015 Community Event Final grant acquittal sent to MWRRG November 2015 Clean up and BBQ at Greenwich Bay
Wader Beach condition
Anecdotally, Scab Duty reports that where they have carried out an extensive clean up of sections of Wader Beach, plants have spread into those areas. This could be due to a number of changes, including, the absence of litter, the action of disturbing the seagrass when removing the litter, spreading seeds during litter pick up. We have not photographed a control site so we are unable to determine if the vegetation would have spread even if the litter had not been removed.
Plants growing through the seagrass after rubbish has been removed.
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Much more work is needed in this area as many factors play a part in the spread of vegetation. Scab Duty is currently discussing approaches on how to best follow up on this anecdotal evidence.
Further work will also include determining where the nearest living seagrass beds are and how much litter the dead and displaced seagrass carries before it arrives at Wader Beach. As it piles up on the beach, small plastic items and even plastic bags are incorporated in the mass, making clean-up difficult. Extensive research is underway internationally on the impact of waste on ocean ecosystems. In Australia, some research on particular aspects of litter pollution is in progress in research establishments. The presence of large quantities of litter at Wader Beach and similar locations around Port Phillip Bay indicates that more research is vital to better understand any threat to our local ecosystems. Status of project objectives at the end of October 2015.
Objective 1: Litter survey is complete and a significant number of volunteers have gained experience in surveying litter.
Objective 2: Long lasting partnerships have been made as a result of this project. In addition, the message about the importance of minimising litter has been spread across the wider community culminating in our Open Day on 25th October 2015.
Objective 3: The Action Plan for future litter management in the area has been developed and presented to all partners. Implementation of the action plan will depend on future funding.
Objective 4: Clean up of Wader Beach. The first major clean up occurred during the weekend 1st and 2nd of August. Due to the significant numbers of migratory birds arriving at Wader Beach during the spring and summer, clean ups will only be conducted during the winter months.
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FOWW would like to thank MWRRG for providing funding for this project. We would also like to thank all our project partners, HBCC, PV, PPEC, FOGB, JMSCG, Scab Duty and 3016 Beach Patrol and hope that we can work together again soon to continue to protect our Bay.
M Olliff October 2015
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