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September-December 2016 Update 6

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Caring For Our Bays
www.environmentbellarine.org.au

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Newsletter September - December update
1. Be a Hero Campaign Update
2. St Leonards Primary School - Be A Hero
3. Environmental Days updates
4. Did you know? Seagrass
5. The Majestic Plastic Bag
 
Be A Local Hero Campaign Update

The Caring for Our Bays program has been kicking goals over the past few months. With the fantastic input from Kate Wynn at CCMA, we have managed to secure meetings with major fast food outlets around the Cuthbertsons Creek area in Corio. From the data collected during our litter audits of Cuthbertsons creek, the major contributing item has been identified as take-away food and drink items.

KFC and McDonalds have been open to discussions around helping to spread the word about litter in their area to help encourage patrons to use bins provided.

We should start to see stickers on bins and other advertising material in regards to the Caring For Our Bays Be A Local Hero campaign in the coming months.

Another huge win for the team is The Geelong Waterfront committee has agreed to have bin signage around Western Beach, Steampacket Gardens and Eastern Beach during the summer period. This high traffic time will give the program great exposure to hundreds of thousands of visitors to the foreshore.
Connies Cards have arrived.

A big thank you to Metropolitan Waste and Resource Recovery group for supplying us with our very own set of Connies cards. With the help of Roberto D'Andrea from Connies.com.au, we now have 2 designs, one which represents seals and the threat that discarded fishing waste presents to these animals and the other is our iconic Weedy Sea Dragon and the visual representation that 80% of all marine debris comes from land.

They are a fantastic teaching tool when visiting students and we have enough give out to all students on our environment and community days.
Be A Local Hero Marine Debris Education

Photo - St. Leonards Primary School proudly applying our bin stickers and drain stickers at their school.
St Leonards primary school students are very environmentally conscious and only take put their bins out at recess and lunch time to ensure animals and wind does not accidentally blow rubbish out from them. I was invited to come and talk to the grade 5/6's at the school about marine debris and plastics. I was pleasantly surprised to see on the way into the school the students were working on a project around the Seal The Loop campaign by Zoo's Victoria, which aims at reducing discarded fishing line entering our oceans. The students already had knowledge of the effects of litter on our environment and a good understanding of how it might effect our marine animals. We spoke about how special Port Phillip Bay is and how different types of litter interact with marine life. With the help of our Connies Cards and Be A Local Hero posters, the student gained further insight into how they can help reduce marine debris.
Thanks for having me St Leonards Primary School and keep up the good work!
In the above photo, we can see the drain stencil painted on the drain at the school over 15 years ago and the new drain stickers applied.
- Jarrod Boord.
Our brand new Recycling Only version of the be a hero stickers. Specifically produced for the Geelong Waterfront bins. Look out for them over summer.
Have you seen our bin stickers at Ocean Grove and Barwon river? Thanks to Barwon Coast for coming on board the project and supporting us by licensing their bin stickers and purchasing for their bins on the coast and in their caravan park. The bins look fantastic and certainly draw your attention to where rubbish should be placed.
Did you know?

Seagrass
Despite its appearance, seagrasses are not true grasses and are more closely related to lilies and gingers than true grasses. In the tropics they are the main diet of dugongs and green turtles and all over the world including our region they provide a habitat for many, smaller marine animals such as fish and invertebrates. In our local Seagrass areas such as Swan Bay they are particularly important to the fish species including Whiting. They also absorb nutrients from coastal run-off and stabilise sediment, helping to keep the water clear.
The high primary production rates of Seagrasses are closely linked to the high production rates of associated fisheries. These plants support numerous herbivore and detritivore-based food chains, and are considered very productive pastures of the sea. The associated economic values of Seagrass meadows are very large, although not always easy to quantify.
Our local significant Seagrass ecosystems such as Swan bay and Mud islands are incredibly important to the health of Port Phillip Bay and our fisheries.
 
THE MAJESTIC PLASTIC BAG.

A MUST SEE VIDEO BELOW.
Check out this video to learn more!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLgh9h2ePYw

Please feel free to pass on the flyer to your networks.
This project is funded through the Victorian Government's Cleaner Yarra River and Port Phillip Bay Litter Hotspots Program.
 
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