Coastal Clean Ups

As a tourism business that proudly showcases Tasmania’s spectacular coastlines, Pennicott Wilderness Journeys and the Pennicott Foundation are proud to be involved with a number of important coastal clean-up projects.

Annual South West Marine Debris Clean Up – Since 2007, Matt Dell has led a team of volunteers on a week-long clean up of remote beaches along Tasmania’s South West Wilderness World Heritage Area. The 2017 clean-up saw over 66,000 pieces of rubbish collected by a crew of 28 volunteers. Pleasingly, this is a significant decrease from the 80,694 items collected in 2016.

Students from across Australia followed the journey online through the Bookend Trust’s Expedition Class website, which had a daily blog being posted from one of the volunteers. Bookend also created learning resources tailored for primary and high school students, allowing them to understand the devastating impact of marine debris. Many local schools carried out their own beach clean-ups to give students a hands-on experience.

SKAL Club of Hobart Clean a Beach Day – Since 2015 Pennicott Wilderness Journeys has donated a boat to provide opportunities for tourism industry professionals from Skal Hobart to volunteer a day to clean up local beaches.  The aim of the Clean-A-Beach event is to enhance Hobart’s brand as a premium tourist destination, give back to the local community and to help to protect the pristine environment for future generations.  The Skal Club of Hobart raises funds from the event for the Pennicott Foundation to help protect the marine environment.

Friends School Students – Over a three year period, Pennicott Wilderness Journeys took groups of Grade 9 students from The Friends’ School to clean up beaches around Bruny Island. This hands-on experience was part of their school camp program. In 2016 students removed over 2 tonnes of rubbish, which was catalogued and added to the Australian Marine Debris database. In addition to the fantastic conservation outcomes, the memories of this experience will stay with the students for the rest of their lives.