Dear David and all
I do agree, partially, with your comments.
I have no saved 3 different animals tangled in fishing lines (1 ray at
Rye Pier, 1 seal in the very north island of Shetlads UK and 1 bird in
Spain) - hence why such cleanup actions are so important in my opinion.
I do tend to remove fresh/new rubbish since they are clearly not part of
the marine ecosystem, however when some of these materials are clearly
bioencrusted/serving as shelter then I usually leave them behind. In this
event I did not specify what type of rubbish to be collected since I know
that different peoples have different views on the subject, but it sure ca
be something to be discussed and agreed for the day - only collecting
non-encrusted material, any takes on this from others?
as long as we are doing our bid to clean up the ocean and have some fun
while doing it, its all good
Cheers
Pedro A. Viegas
Palaeontology Technical Officer - ARC Discovery Project
Teaching Associate - School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment
Monash University
Clayton Campus
EAE School - Building 28
9 Rainforest Walk
Level 1 - Room 105
Clayton 3800
Victoria, Australia
Cell: +61 0 435 637 474
Office: +61 3 99055786
pedro.viegas@xxxxxxxxxx
paleomail@xxxxxxxxx
On 22 April 2015 at 13:45, David Reinhard <davidreinhard@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
The idea of cleaning up the sea is a great one and I would fully support
it.
BUT...I do get concerned by clean-up efforts because they have the
potential
to remove habitat that can be used by the marine life. I remember seeing
photos of shopping trolleys being removed at Mordialloc Pier a few years
ago. The problem is that these shopping trolleys provide habitat for many
creatures, in particular sea horses that I have seen living on them.
Bottles
and cans also provide habitat for octopuses - I took a photo of an octopus
in a bottle at Blaigowrie just a few weeks ago. My suggestion is that solid
objects that can be used as habitat should be left in place, unless they
have the potential to cause harm.
I see the major problem as being plastic and fishing line. These are
unsightly, provide no habitat and have the potential to cause harm to the
marine life. This is the sort of stuff that needs to be targeted.
Just throwing in my opinion for consideration.
Regards,
David
-----Original Message-----
From: masc-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:masc-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf
Of Pedro Viegas
Sent: Thursday, 16 April 2015 12:38 AM
To: masc@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [MASC] Marine Conservation - Diving Earth Day
Good day everyone
I am planning to organize a Dive Against Debris event within the Project
AWARE.
This month will have Earth Day in the calendar and the idea is to do a
weekend diving session raising awareness, do a few cleanup dives and also
allowing the broader community to join in (not just already hardcore
divers).
I am a member of MONUC but want to include all divers and dive clubs in
Victoria to be involved in the event The idea so far is to do a dive
where:
1) a lot of people (families, tourists...) go in the weekend
2) there is usually lots of rubbish in the sea (mostly because of the above
reason)
I am currently talking with a Dive Operator which is willing to join in,
advertise and bring a mobile unit with cylinders, suits, masks, fins... the
whole works in order to give a chance to anyone that is not a diver or does
not have their own equipment to do a try dive and start in the underwater
world, raising more awareness and reaching out to the general public, this
is something we could have from the clubs as well giving the opportunity to
members that do not own their own equipment to have a go and join a clean
up
dive. They will also bring PROJECT AWARE banners... hopefully the AMCS will
also join us in the event.
I would really like to have MASC and MONUC clubs there, giving the
opportunity to all our members to join in a Project AWARE event, *actively
contributing for marine conservation.*
This is the plan outline so far, the idea was to use the first weekend
after earth day, but since it falls into ANZAC day we will make it the
weekend after, May 2nd, so everyone can join and dive in or around Flinders
- an amazing site, not very often dived, with lots of families/tourists
visiting (great for outreach) and with amazing stuff to see underwater -
Leafy Sea Dragon!!!
Please let me know if this sounds interesting to you, I would very much
like to involve you and other diving clubs as well - the more the merrier
Pedro A. Viegas
Palaeontology Technical Officer - ARC Discovery Project Teaching Associate
-
School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment
Monash University
Clayton Campus
EAE School - Building 28
9 Rainforest Walk
Level 1 - Room 105
Clayton 3800
Victoria, Australia
Cell: +61 0 435 637 474
Office: +61 3 99055786
pedro.viegas@xxxxxxxxxx
paleomail@xxxxxxxxx
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