Our mission is to minimise the threat marine debris has on our aquatic environment saving our turtles and marine mammals from entanglement and eventual death.
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Recent Projects
Charter Yachts Australia is our first local tourism operator to sponsor an Eco Barge Trip. On this day we had five volunteers including Wendy Hurrey representing Charter Yachts Australia. We targeted Turtle Bay on Whitsunday Island. Our team managed to clean two beaches in this bay and collected a total of 180.5 kgs of marine debris. Every piece was then entered into the National Marine Debris Data Base the following day. A stand out we collected for this day was 1564 bottle tops and 267 shoes!!
On this day we had six volunteers on the Eco Barge and targeted the marine debris post cyclone. We collected 1500 kgs of boat wreckage and 81 kilos of light marine debris. All the light marine debris we entered into the National Marine Debris Data Base.
We continued the post cyclone clean up along the Bluff Point area. On this day we had six volunteers and collected a total of two tonne of boat wreckage and 80 kgs of light marine debris, all the light marine debris was then entered into the National Marine Debris Data Base.
We had five volunteers on board the Eco Barge this day and targeted Torres Herald Bay, Whitsunday Island. Our team collected a huge amount of marine debris a total of 295.33kg and entered every piece into the National Marine Debris Data Base.
Post Cyclone Clean up continues thanks to our sponsor Reef Catchments, we had eight volunteers this day and targeted the large build up of marine debris along the Bluff Point coastline, this included Masts Beach, and Stones Beach.
Total collected for this day, 2,144.7 kgs. Two tonnes of boat wreckage and 144.7 kg of marine debris, the light marine debris was then entered into the National Marine Debris Data Base the following day.
27/04/10 Whitsunday Regional Council
Bluff Point Clean up continues with another seven volunteers on this day we collected a further 2.5 tonnes of wreckage and marine debris, we then counted and sorted this marine debris into the National Marine Debris Data Base.
08/04/10 Reef Catchments
Bluff Point was highly impacted from Cyclone Ului, due to four meter high tides washing the majority of wreckage and marine debris along the Bluff Point and Grimston Point area. With emergency sponsorship from Reef Catchments we are able to takle the large amount of marine debris along this coastline. On this day we loaded the Eco Barge to full capacity with help from our 7 volunteers our total for this day was a massive three tonnes.
31/03/10 Cyclone Clean Up Event Reef Catchments Public Fund
With the Reef Catchments Public Fund we were able to continue our post Cyclone Clean up event to remove the remaining wreckage and marine debris along the Airlie Beach foreshore, on this day we collected a massive 3.6 tonne of wreckage and marine debris.
26/03/10 Cyclone Clean Up Event Whitsunday Regional Council
Over sixty vessels were sunk or serverly damaged from Cyclone Ului in the Airlie Beach and Shute Harbour area an extremely large amount of wreckage and debris entered our waterways. The Whitsunday Regional Council sponsored Eco Barge Services to remove the huge amount of wreckage and marine debris left over from Cyclone Ului from the 26/03/10 – 30/03/10 in this time the Eco Barge Crew and many wonderful, dedicated volunteers removed 9.1 tonnes of wreckage and marine debris from the Airie Beach Foreshore.
07/03/10 Clean up Australia Day Local Scouts Group
Leader, Helen Murray and six Scouts helped the Eco Barge remove marine debris for Clean Up Australia Day along Bluff Point; we collected 28 kilos this day! Thank you Scouts!!
Sponsor Tangaroa Blue Ocean Care Society
Date: 8th of February 2010
Our total tally for marine debris collected for this day was 323 Kilos. We collected 36 bags, a lounge and 20 meters of ships rope from this area.
This was a very successful day; our volunteers enjoyed learning about the Marine Debris Data Base and were intrested in what were the most items collected for this bay.
Thank you to our sponsor Tangaroa Blue Ocean Care Society for helping the Eco Barge and volunteers to remove 323 kilos from our local aquatic environment.
Sponsor- Eco Barge Services
Funnel Bay Clean up of Prickly Pear and marine debris. 06/02/10
Sandy a local resident of Funnel Bay and owner of Scamper a local charter operator contacted Eco Barge to help coordinate a mass clean up of Prickly Pear that had been washed up on Funnel Beach by the strong northerly winds of 30-40 knts and extreme high tides on the 30-31st of January.
Eco Barge coordinated the clean up of this beach for Saturday the 6th of February. Volunteers from the Eco Barge register and concerned local residents of Funnel Bay area met at the beach at 9am to start removing the Prickly Pear weed. We had a total of seven volunteers for this clean up event; this was a good turn out as we only gave two days advance notice of the clean up event.
There was a huge amount of prickly pear on this beach. We collected the prickly pear and marine debris from 9 am to 12pm on Saturday 06/02/10. We collected twelve cubic meters of Prickly Pear filling up the Eco Barge dump truck and a residents ute, we both then convoyed to Proserpine dump where we were referred to dump such waste.
There is still a large amount of live Prickly Pear left on this beach and all volunteers involved want Eco Barge Services to organise another clean up event shortly.
Sponsor- Reef Catchments
Date: 17th November 2009
Crew: Skipper Libby Edge ,Yukari Takemasa as host.
Departure/Time: Departed Whitsunday Sailing Club at 8.30 for Saba Bay, Hook Island.
Safety demonstration carried out and a brief about our sponsor, Reef Catchments Island Task Force highlighting Reef Catchments projects in the Mackay/Whitsunday Region.
We targeted a well known hotspot for marine debris just South of Saba Bay on Hook Island. This beach our volunteers named “Bottle Top Beach”. Bottle Top Beach was 500 meters long and absolutely covered in marine debris.
The Eco Barge crew and the six volunteers collected 305 kilos of marine debris from this beach.
Morning tea was at 11am of fruits and cake and a short well deserved rest from the hot sun. Thanks to Rotary Of Airlie Beach.
We finished our marine debris clean up of this beach at 13.00. Bottle Top beach is now pristine clean. The Eco Barge then traveled into Saba Bay to look for other beaches covered in marine debris for future Eco Barge clean trips.
Lunch was served at 13.30 on a beautiful Beach at Saba Bay on Hook Island. This was great reward for the volunteers to thank them for the hard work and effort they put into this day.
A great day was had by all, and the Eco Barge was full to capacity with marine debris on the return journey home.
Our Volunteers came back to Edges Boat Yard to help unload the marine debris into the Eco Barge Services sorting shed. The following week Libby Edge counted and recorded every piece of marine debris for the National Marine Debris Data Base.
Thank you, Reef Catchments for helping the Eco Barge to remove this harmful substance from our seas.
Sponsor- Reef Catchments
05/11/09
Pax Numbers: Eight volunteers of which four were local residents and four tourists.
Crew: Libby Edge as skipper, Yukari Takemasa as host
The Eco Barge collected a total of 651 kilos of marine debris starting at Grimston Point and working our way South along the coast towards Bluff Point.
Record of marine debris for this coastline;
59 bags of general marine debris = 178.5 kgs
Wood with nails and paint (boat wreckage) = 230.4 kgs
Fiberglass (boat wreckage) = 204 kgs
Plastic Drums = 18.7 kgs
Polystyrene/ plastic tubing = 13 kgs
Cane chair = 6.5 kgs
Total for the day was 651 kgs.
19/09/09
Sponsor - Reef Catchments & Island Task Force
7 volunteers on board, Kylie Nankivell, Peter & Jill Curwell,Errol Hurst, Robina Mealey, Heather Marshall and Tony Dunn.
On this day we collected 5 kgs from Henning Is, 11kgs from beach 25 on Whitsunday Is, 39.5 at Turtle Bay and 174.5 kgs from Pig Bay on Hazelwood Is. This is a total of 230 kgs of marine debris we have removed from the Whitsunday Islands in one day!
20/08/09
Sponsor - Reef Catchments & Island Task Force
192kgs of marine debris from these islands for the day!
Long Island at Pandanus Bay we collected 120kgs and weighed each group.
15 bags = 56kgs, wood with paint and nails= 25kgs,Rope and fishing line=7kgs,plastic drums=12kgs,Metal(rusty porthole)=20kgs.
We all enjoyed a BBQ lunch funded by Rotary of Airlie Beach at Sandy Bay on South Molle Island then we motored around to Roma Point where our treasured volunteers collected a further 72kgs of marine debris from this beach!
9 bags= 44kgs,Ships rope=15kgs,44 gallon plastic drum=13kgs.
This day was very succesful. Both beaches are now pristene clean. We targeted small plastics right up to the large drums.
15/08/09
Sponsor - Reef Catchments Mackay & Island Task Force
2 volunteers
2 tonne of glass bottles
17/07/09
Sponsor - Reef Catchments & Isalnd Task Force
57 bags of marine debris collected and eight volunteers.
2 tonne of glass bottles stored in hut for next trip to remove
