Microplastics, beer cans, soda bottles, cigarette butts and even a bike were found on the shores of the kanamaluka/Tamar River during a clean-up.
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More than 50 Sea Shepherd members and volunteers of the community helped clean up the area of the river near Royal Park on Sunday morning and found a range of rubbish littering the shores.
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Marine debris coordinator Jane Lucas-Banks said they were very happy with the volunteer turn-out on the day.
She said exact data would be harder to collect due to rules around social distancing requiring individual collection counting, but it would still contribute to data on marine debris.
"[Microplastics are] the worst stuff in a way, because it's easy to pick up a bottle, but this stuff just gets blown away and ends up in the water," she said.
"It was hard with the wind ... with all the soft plastics, but brilliant. The Cubs were out helping, they had a camp or something this weekend and they collected a heap of stuff too."
Ms Lucas-Banks said the group collected from Stillwater around to the Tamar River Cruise area.
The group collected waste from the waterfront and then categorised it as part of the Break Free from Plastic global audit, a citizen science initiative that involves counting and documenting waste to identify the companies responsible for plastic pollution.
The collection will also contribute to Tangaroa Blue data, an Australian Marine Debris Initiative that uses data from clean-up days and categorises it to provide data on marine debris in Australia for educational and research purposes.
Sea Shephered Tasmania has more clean-ups planned in the North, including one at Sulphur Creek on October 4, one in Devonport in November and another at Invermay near Riverbend Park in December.
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