One million years. That's how long it takes one glass bottle to decompose naturally in the environment. A fishing line takes 600 years. A plastic drinking bottle, 450 years. A plastic shopping bag, 20 years.
Even orange peel can take up to 2 years to break down!
In July I headed to the Northern Territory and with 8 other conservation volunteers, set out for the Garig Gurnak Barlu National Park in West Arnhem Land on a holiday with a difference. We were there to help collect marine debris from the Park's beaches. From a distance the beaches look pure and pristine, but sadly close up it is a different story. On a typical trek along the beach we would find plastic bottles, bottle tops, aluminium cans, baskets, floatation devices, eskies, glass bottles, toothbrushes, oil drums, and thongs.
Our guide told us that the thongs found in this area were almost always left foot thongs, never right feet - and so it proved. There is a theory that the right feet thongs travel in a different direction because of their shape ???!!
The worst were the fishing nets. You see a 2 centimetre piece of string sticking out of the sand. You think, "Is that really worth picking up? I"ll give it a tug" and half an hour later you find you are wrestling with a 30 metre fishing net. These nets are diabolical. They weigh a ton and get sandlogged so it is hot sweaty work digging them out of the beach.
So yes, I had a rubbish holiday, but it was a great experience. We went to remote beaches and billabongs that are not usually accessed by the public, areas where generations of indigenous Australians have lived and died (and are buried), saw rock art, camped under the stars and encountered beautiful birdlife, along with crocodiles, humpback dolphins, wallabies and buffalo.
Naturewise Holidays is a branch of Australian Conservation Volunteers and they organise holidays with conservation activities all around Australia.
And as one of the members of our group said, "Once a marine debris collector - always a marine debris collector". You get into the habit of looking for rubbish everywhere. When summer comes, I'll be heading for the beach - with a garbage bag.
Even orange peel can take up to 2 years to break down!
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| A sample of rubbish found on a remote beach 10 hours drive from Darwin |
All these things are clogging up our oceans and will be doing so for centuries to come. They pose an immense danger to marine life and sea bird who mistake them for food. Fishing nets also are abandoned by fishing boats at sea and are a huge hazard as they float with the currents, trapping sharks, turtles and fish of all sizes indiscriminately. The organisation GhostNets is an alliance of over 22 indigenous communities from coastal northern Australia which trains indigenous rangers in these areas to find and remove these nets and release trapped marine life, or at least prevent them from endangering more wildlife. In July I headed to the Northern Territory and with 8 other conservation volunteers, set out for the Garig Gurnak Barlu National Park in West Arnhem Land on a holiday with a difference. We were there to help collect marine debris from the Park's beaches. From a distance the beaches look pure and pristine, but sadly close up it is a different story. On a typical trek along the beach we would find plastic bottles, bottle tops, aluminium cans, baskets, floatation devices, eskies, glass bottles, toothbrushes, oil drums, and thongs.
Our guide told us that the thongs found in this area were almost always left foot thongs, never right feet - and so it proved. There is a theory that the right feet thongs travel in a different direction because of their shape ???!!
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| A pristine beach - or is it? |
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| Digging a fishing net out of the sand. |
The worst were the fishing nets. You see a 2 centimetre piece of string sticking out of the sand. You think, "Is that really worth picking up? I"ll give it a tug" and half an hour later you find you are wrestling with a 30 metre fishing net. These nets are diabolical. They weigh a ton and get sandlogged so it is hot sweaty work digging them out of the beach.
So yes, I had a rubbish holiday, but it was a great experience. We went to remote beaches and billabongs that are not usually accessed by the public, areas where generations of indigenous Australians have lived and died (and are buried), saw rock art, camped under the stars and encountered beautiful birdlife, along with crocodiles, humpback dolphins, wallabies and buffalo.
Naturewise Holidays is a branch of Australian Conservation Volunteers and they organise holidays with conservation activities all around Australia.
And as one of the members of our group said, "Once a marine debris collector - always a marine debris collector". You get into the habit of looking for rubbish everywhere. When summer comes, I'll be heading for the beach - with a garbage bag.
