Eco Barge Clean Seas Inc. have been running the Whitsunday Marine Debris Removal Program since June 2009. The aim of this project is to have a constant and on-going debris removal program in the Whitsunday region to regularly clean-up and monitor the islands and coastline in order to protect the iconic Whitsunday islands from the detrimental effects of marine debris. To date, this program has removed over 179,000 kilograms of marine debris from the Whitsunday region.

The Whitsunday Marine Debris Removal Program is currently in a monitoring phase, having dealt with much of the previous accumulation of debris. We aim to run 30-40 clean-up trips per year as well as an expedition to the southern Whitsunday Islands to tackle the marine debris which continues to wash up on our beaches from the south-east trade winds.

The Barge Trips

The barge carries up to10 volunteers on each of our clean-up trips and we head out to known impacted bays and beaches in the Whitsunday region. On average we remove around 300 kilograms of marine debris per trip. Lunch and morning tea is provided on the day and we always welcome new volunteers.

Southern Whitsunday Island Expedition

Each year Eco Barge aims to run a Southern island expedition, this is a four day clean-up and in the past we have stayed overnight at a base camp on Lindeman Island as our base camp. Thes southern islands are too far for us to access in one day from the mainland. The expeditions ensure that they get cleaned, as they are constantly inundated with marine debris. On average during each expedition we remove around 2,500 kilograms of marine debris.

If you would like to volunteer on our barge trips please register your details by clicking here