Gods of the sea

Over the past four years I have volunteered on the Board of marine debris organisation the Tangaroa Blue Foundation . I’m honoured to have been invited to Chair this great organisation of citizen scientists and I’m looking forward to working alongside my fellow Board members to continue to protect our oceans and waterways.

Founded by Heidi Tait in 2004, our incredible network of 225,000 volunteers and Australian Marine Debris Initiative (AMDI) partners have removed more than 1,700 tonnes of waste and logged more than 22 million items in the AMDI Database. 

In Māori, Tangaroa means God of the sea and our volunteers, partners and Indigenous land and sea rangers bring that vision to life. The data insights this citizen science network generates has helped to drive process and behaviour change across industry to reduce waste at its source and stop it entering our waterways.

Among the source reduction programs we have created are:

• Ditch the Flick: Designed to change smokers behaviour that sees cigarette butts binned instead of flicked.
• Look After your Tackle: Designed to help fishers know their knots and reduce fishing litter.
• Litter Hero: Designed to use directional signage with positive messaging to reward better behaviour around the disposal of waste.
• Project ReCon: Designed to retrieve and repurpose satellite technology to track and remove deadly and destructive ghost nets.

Tangaroa Blue also administers a range of programs including The Federal Government’s ReefClean project, Let’s Strain the Drains, Rig Recycle, Operation Clean Sweep and countless community and corporate clean-ups. All play a pivotal role in generating the data needed to inform positive change to reduce waste and plastic pollution damaging our ocean ecosystems.

Community engagement activities are at the heart of what we do and recently I had the honour of working with two of the amazing Tangaroa Blue team members Mathilde Gordon and Carol Sutherland on our stand at a recent Jack Johnson concert at the Sydney Opera House. We spoke with hundreds of concert goers about marine debris with many deciding to join the team and donate. You can also get involved. From joining a clean-up in your area to bringing your skills and expertise to one of our programs or working groups, there are many ways you can help protect our oceans and waterways from plastic pollution and other debris.

Finally, I would like to thank all our staff, volunteers and partners across Australia for the amazing work they do. You truly are the Gods of the sea.