The 2022 ReefClean Report has been released, showcasing the fourth year of the five-year ReefClean project funded by the Australian Government’s Reef Trust. The initiative aims to remove and prevent marine debris along the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) through community, monitoring, annual GBR Clean-up, Source Reduction Plan (SRP), school, training and disaster management clean-ups.
In 2022, over 4,139 volunteers from 251 organisations spent 14,211 hours collecting 23.7 tonnes of debris across 1,987 hectares of the GBR. Remnant plastic bits and pieces and plastic lids and tops, pump spray and flow restrictors were the top two items collected for the fourth consecutive year in the GBR.
Data is provided for the GBR area, the six National Resource Management regions, and the northern, central and southern zones within each NRM region. The Land Sea Source Index (LSSI), density of debris, and top three items collected are provided for each region and zone. The data shows that the Cape York region had the heaviest mass and greatest density of debris collected for the fourth year in a row, with the majority of debris predicted to have come from offshore sources. Data from clean-ups is entered into the Australian Marine Debris Initiative (AMDI) Database and used to design and implement SRPs to target specific debris items in an area.
The ReefClean program’s achievements highlight the importance of collective effort in removing and preventing marine debris from the GBR, with the number of volunteers, participants, and organisations involved in ReefClean continuing to grow every year.
Read the 2022 ReefClean report below.
ReefClean is funded by the Australian Government’s Reef Trust and delivered
by Tangaroa Blue Foundation in partnership with Reef Check Australia,
Capricornia Catchments, Eco Barge Clean Seas, OceanWatch Australia, South
Cape York Catchments and Australian Microplastics Assessment Project
(AUSMAP).
