Tangaroa Blue Foundation

Chasing Down Ghost Gear Before it Hits the Reef

Chasing Down Ghost Gear Before it Hits the Reef Pictured above: A huge ghost net recovered through Project ReCon, which reuses lost GPS buoys to track ghost gear. Tangaroa Blue Foundation and the Pacific Community (SPC) have entered into a new collaboration through a pilot project to recover dFADs that have been lost from the international purse seine fishing grounds and drifted into the Australian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). SPC, in collaboration with Satlink and partner fishing companies (the American

30 October 2025

The Thinker’s Burden: Reflections from Geneva’s (Failed?) Treaty Talks

Tangaroa Blue’s Global Plastics Treaty Ambassador Dr Randika Jayasinghe It’s been five days since I returned from Geneva, and only now can I find the words. Every morning, my walk to the UN Palais in Geneva took me past Canadian artist Benjamin Von Wong’s sculpture “The Thinker’s Burden”. A reimagining of Rodin’s classic, but this thinker cradled a child while seated on Mother Earth, wrapped in DNA strands. Each day, I watched as more plastic waste was piled around it,

21 August 2025

We’re Hiring – Project Coordinator on Christmas Island

We’re hiring a part-time or casual Project Coordinator on Christmas Island Are you passionate about protecting our oceans and want to make a real impact? Tangaroa Blue Foundation is looking for a dedicated Project Officer on Christmas Island to help drive community engagement and science-based solutions to tackle marine debris. As our major Indian Ocean Territories grant-funded project wraps up, we’re looking for a project coordinator who can help Tangaroa Blue continue to deliver some of the key elements of

3 July 2025

Rig Recycle Youth Ambassador Guy Lambert gets stuck in at the Boyne Tannum Hook Up

Representing Rig Recycle at Australia’s Biggest Fishing Comp Rig Recycle Youth Ambassador GUY LAMBERT Last weekend, Dad and I travelled to the Gladstone area to represent Rig Recycle in the biggest fishing competition in Australia, the Boyne Tannum Hook Up. It was great catching up with and working with Tangaroa Blue Coordinator Ian Anderson, who kindly accommodated us for the weekend. With approximately 30,000 people attending the Hook Up, it was a great chance to meet and connect with the

7 May 2025

The Esky Library Trial: A Community-Led Source Reduction Success!

The Esky Library Trial: A Community-Led Source Reduction Success! Between February and April 2025, 23 households on Christmas Island came together to rethink how fresh food air freight is delivered, attempting to tackle the #1 item found in local beach clean-ups: polystyrene waste. Impacts of our circular solution: 35 reusable eskies circulated 6,187L of polystyrene waste (269 foam boxes) diverted from landfill 100% of participants want to keep using the service 50+ more Indian Ocean Territory households and three businesses are ready to

5 May 2025

2024 ReefClean® Report Out Now: Communities Uniting for the Reef

Reef Catchment Communities Unite to Remove 11 Tonnes of Marine Debris The 2024 ReefClean® Report is here, and it shines a spotlight on the incredible work of our ReefClean community, partners, and team over the past year. Together, we ran 222 clean-up events — including marine debris monitoring and disaster response activities — alongside 11 educational workshops and 11 new source reduction initiatives. Pictured: Volunteers sorting debris at a remote clean-up at Chilli Beach. Diving into the Data This year’s

17 April 2025

Clorox ordered to pay $8.25m in penalties for misleading ‘ocean plastic’ claims after Tangaroa Blue Complaint

Tangaroa Blue Foundation and the Environmental Defenders Office (EDO) are celebrating a major campaign win against greenwashing. Following their complaint, the ACCC has successfully taken action against Clorox, the parent company of GLAD, for making false and misleading claims about “ocean plastic” in their products. Clorox has now been ordered to pay $8.25 million in penalties for marketing GLAD kitchen and garbage bags as being made from recycled “ocean plastic” – a claim that simply isn’t possible. Plastics collected from the marine environment are

14 April 2025

CSIRO says plastic pollution on Australian beaches has dropped by a third—but has it really?

CSIRO says plastic pollution on Australian beaches has dropped by a third—but has it really? The staggering 29% drop, announced recently by CSIRO, is based on just two surveys taken a decade apart, often sampled from different sites. That’s like scooping water from a muddy creek once and then comparing that with water from a beach 10 years later. Concluding that the water is now cleaner ignores that you sampled different spots under different circumstances. Infrequent sampling, especially if earlier

4 April 2025

Results are in! Check out the 2024 WA Beach Clean-up results for your region.

Thousands of Volunteers, 7.2 Tonnes Removed – Read the 2024 WA Clean-up Report The 2024 Western Australian Beach Clean-up marked a significant milestone—celebrating 20 years of community action to protect our coastline. As Tangaroa Blue Foundation’s longest-running community-driven initiative, this year’s event saw record-breaking participation and incredible collective impact. More than 2,000 volunteers from 60 organisations, schools, and community groups dedicated 3,855 hours to remove over 7.2 tonnes of marine debris from nearly 158 km of WA’s coastline. READ THE

26 March 2025

Reducing Waste, One Esky at a Time: IOT Esky Library Initiative Update

Fresh Food, Less Polystyrene Waste: The Esky Library Trial’s Second Rotation Success Last Friday (21st Feb 2025), we successfully completed the second rotation of the Esky Library Trial, continuing to test replacing single-use polystyrene packaging with reusable eskies in the Indian Ocean Territories (IOT). The Impact So Far • 28 reusable eskies were used in this freight cycle • Diverting approx. 1,288L of polystyrene waste from entering the island’s waste stream • This brings the total saved so far to 2,208L of polystyrene

26 February 2025