Volunteer

Volunteer at a beach clean-up to help protect the ocean and marine life

Volunteer with us

Whether you’re a beach clean-up pro, or it’s your first time – you can become a Tangaroa Blue Foundation beach clean-up volunteer and help protect the ocean from marine debris.

Volunteer at a beach clean-up

Tangaroa Blue Foundation has been reducing and preventing marine debris since 2004. We’ve contributed to some of the biggest wins against plastic pollution and marine debris over the last two decades, including campaigning for container deposit schemes, single-use plastic bans and industry best practice programs.

We couldn’t do any of this without our passionate group of volunteers, who work across Australia on beach clean-ups, entering vital data into the Australian Marine Debris Initiative (AMDI) Database.

We need your help to protect the ocean

Take a look at events happening in your area and join us for a beach clean-up!

Come aboard the MV Steve Irwin

Volunteer on our ReefClean marine debris mission to protect the Great Barrier Reef

Register your interest to come aboard the MV Steve Irwin ship as we sail to prevent and remove marine debris in the GBR region.

Organise your own beach clean-up

If a beach in your area needs a clean-up, but you can’t see one to join, why not create your own? You can take action with the support from Tangaroa Blue Foundation.

Remember, collecting the rubbish is great, but recording the data will have an even longer-lasting effect as it helps to formulate solutions.

The following steps will help you prepare for your event:

Advertise your event in your community.
You might want to buy some clean-up materials such as bags, gloves and sharps containers from our Sea Store. We can also tailor the size of your clean-up kit to your needs.
Make yourself familiar with the AMDI methodology and instructions on how to run a clean-up event by checking out our How-to videos and manual. The Marine Debris ID Manual will help you identify the categories of debris, and the data sheet can be used to tally the items you collect.
After the clean-up you will need to enter your data into the AMDI Database. Please make yourself familiar with our data use agreement before the event.
Keep in mind that in order to input your data into the AMDI Database you will also need to record:
1. Number of volunteers
2. Time spent
3. Distance covered including GPS coordinates

You can go to the report page of our database and access a wide variety of data from your previous clean-ups for your own reporting purposes.

For any questions and queries, drop us a message.

Contribute to our administration

No opportunity to clean-up a beach, or you have special skills to offer? There is always administrative work to do and since Tangaroa Blue Foundation works nationwide we are always keen to involve more people that have expert skills – financial, legal, marketing, business, presenters or coordinators. Note that these activities are volunteer positions only. Fill in this expression of interest form and send it back, we’ll let you know what we are currently working on and where we need assistance.