On 14th January, the Victorian Sea Shepherd  team kicked off 2024 beach clean-ups at Flinders Pier as part of the Big Beach Clean-Up event organised by the Flinders Community Association. It was a great event with many ocean-loving volunteers helping out on the day. Community is powerful when it comes to getting things done and that was evidenced this Sunday.

The Sea Shepherd Marine Debris team and close to 70 volunteers assisted in removing 116 kg of rubbish all sorted and counted 1,991 pieces of trash with the most prevalent items included:

417 items of soft plastic
179 cigarette butts
101 aluminium cans
100 wet wipes
91 items of fishing gear – hooks/squid jigs
60 plastic bottles
44 coffee/ single-use noodle cups
 Hundreds of metres of discarded fishing line is a crucial step in preventing potential harm to marine life.
 A surf board
 One bar stool
 One broken but fairly new and elaborate beach chair
 One brick, one lump of concrete, one rusty star picket and one rusty steel plate.
We are grateful to be a part of this clean-up and thankful to everyone who joined and helped to clean up the marine environment and help to protect the ocean. It was highly inspiring to see many dedicated volunteers and community members!

Click HERE for more information about Sea Shepherd