Marine Debris Project Final Report 2014

For non-fishing related debris, the majority of the material in Australia’s marine region appears to beAustralian in origin, and from land-based activities in particular. Exceptions to this pattern are areas thatare particularly remote, and which have high levels of fishing effort, such as the west coast of Tasmania,where domestic fishing gear dominates the debris in the nearshore region.1.16 DEWHA, in collaboration with DFAT, to identify opportunities for exchange visits between coastal(especially Indigenous) communities experiencing the impacts of marine debris and groups in other nationswhere large proportions of harmful marine debris originate. DEWHA and DFAT 1–2 yearsGhostnets Australia facilitated several exchanges as part of the program of workshops with Indonesianfisheries officials and fishermen. Environment (DEWHA) cofounded a number of these, via Travis Bover’steam.1.17 DEWHA, in collaboration with DFAT, to strengthen relations with regional neighbours on marine debristhrough relevant fora, and develop collaborative project proposals to address the sources and impacts ofharmful marine debris. DEWHA and DFAT 2–4 years.Ghostnets Australia is currently leading a collaborative project in cooperation with CSIRO and ATSEA todevelop approaches for reducing lost gear in Indonesia. This project has reached the end of its majorfunding. There is some ongoing activity in developing outreach through ATSEA, which is currently funded byEnvironment (DEWHA).2.1 DEWHA in collaboration with state and territory governments and other relevant stakeholders tosupport the development of nationally consistent, statistically rigorous data collection protocols and surveymethods. DEWHA to support the development and management of national mapping of the spatialdistribution and concentration of marine debris over time to assess the significance of marine debris and toreduce its occurrence. DEWHA 1–3 yearsCSIRO developed a large project to quantify the amount and distribution of debris in Australia’s coastalenvironment. The project included: 1) development of a statistically robust sampling design at thecontinental scale; 2) development of a simple, rapid, quantitative survey method; 3) implementation ofsurveys every 100km along the coastline following this design; 4) development of a database for housingand handling this information; and 5) development of robust statistical tools that could identify bothterrestrial and marine sources of debris, and provide a standardized map of the distribution of debris at thenational scale. This project is currently in its final year, with results available either post- or prepublication.The database developed for this project can accommodate both at sea and terrestrial sampling, along withHardesty et al. (2014) | 63