Poster abstracts and manuscripts from the Third International ...

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The four year survey was designed and established by Janet
Slater, a scientific officer with the Tasmanian National Parks
and Wildlife Service in response to the growing problem of
entanglement of marine- life in debris. It was the first marine
debris study to be established in Australia and remains the only
statewide study of the problem in this country.
Tasmania is an island state at the southern extremity of the
continent of Australia and has the largest coastline of 5,400 km.
Tasmania is bounded by four oceans: the Pacific and Tasman Oceans
to the east; Indian ocean to the west and Southern ocean to the
south. These waters comprise the core of the world's smallest
marine province and also include a province with the highest
known marine plant diversity in the world. The nutrient rich
temperate waters around the state support an abundant fishery
which is heavily exploited by local, national and international
fishing fleets which have in recent years been the source of much
debris problems, such as entanglement of marine mammals, bycatch
problems and coastal pollution.
The growing problems of entanglement of resident Australian fur
seals, Arctocephalus pusillus doriferus (one of the four smallest
seal populations in the world) in fishing debris, especially
plastic strapping bands was the specific reason why the marine
debris survey program was established in January 1990.
The aim of the survey program was, and still is, to record the
quantity, types and distribution of the debris, identify and
target sources through education and legislation and assist in
making changes. It also aims to monitor the rate of debris
accumulation over time both on a seasonal and annual basis.
Results have been analyzed on a regional as well as a statewide
basis, so that data can also be related to land use as well as
oceanic/coastal use. For example, Tasmania's west coast is
virtually uninhabited wilderness with most of the adjoining land
in a National Park or uninhabited due to the rugged terrain.
Thus, marine debris can be presumed to be oceanic in origin.
Surveys were conducted by National Parks and Wildlife scientific
and ranger staff as well as the general public over a
representative geographic range of Tasmania's coastline, from
populated city beaches through to our most isolated wilderness
areas.
Between January 1990 and January 1994, a total of 450 surveys
were conducted at 236 sites covering a distance of 550km.
Fifty states were regularly monitored to collect temporal data.
Of the debris recorded to date, plastic items were the most
frequently occurring comprising 70 percent of all debris. Of
this total, 40 percent of plastics are sources to both commercial
and recreational fishing (rope, nets, line, bait straps, buoys,
floats).
On a statewide basis, this represents an average of approximately
454 debris items per/km. On remote stretches of coastline of the
southwest of Tasmania, where human visitation from the land is
rare, the average number of items/km is in some places 600-1000,