Clean Bay Blueprint

"Port Phillip Bay is not like the ocean. The litter we find on bay beaches is ours and ours alone. It got there from the suburbs, via the waterways and is not likely to float away elsewhere on the next tide." 

- Fam Charko, Marine Biologist, Port Phillip EcoCentre

About the project

Plastic pollution is currently one of Victoria's largest threats to waterway health. It is a well-documented hazard to marine life in Port Phillip Bay as well as human health and the economy, including tourism. 

Clean Bay Blueprint sought to build on the previous success of our Litter Hotspots project, Turn off the Tap, by continuing litter research to provide sound scientific evidence to inform positive change for the environment, through:

• Continuing our monthly microplastics trawls in the Yarra and Maribyrnong Rivers with the Yarra Riverkeeper Association. We built on 5.5 years worth of data. This type of research had never been done in Australia before.
• Collaborating with community groups around the Bay to conduct Baykeeper Beach Litter Audits in 6 Baykeeper reference sites around the Bay.
• Collaborating with Dolphin Research Institute, who conducted litter audits with school groups as part of education and data collection efforts and the RMIT Plastics Lab, who analysed caught microplastics for polymer type.
• Contributing to the Victorian Litter Action Alliance goals by acting as a community member on their reference group.

"The findings from this report highlight that we need to tackle the issue upstream, before plastics degrade and fragment and become harder, economically and logistically, to remove."

- Yarra Riverkeeper Association

Media and Previous Reports

• Rising Rivers of Plastic Polluting Port Phillip Bay (The Age, 1 March 2021)
• Litter and plastic pollution found in Yarra and Maribyrnong skyrockets (The Australian, 2 March 2021)
• Tonnes of litter fished from the Yarra every year as native species suffer (The Age, 20 March 2019)
• Rising tide of plastic choking Port Phillip Bay (The Age, 28 July 2019)
• Clean Bay Blueprint interim report: Microplastics in the Maribyrnong and Yarra Rivers (2018)
• Millions of Plastic Pieces Choking Port Phillip Bay (The Age, 27 June 2018)
• Interview on Radio Marinara (July 2018)
• Interview on 3CR Community Radio (July 2018)
• Previous Litter Hotspots project report: Microplastics in the Maribyrnong and Yarra Rivers (2017)

Partners & Funders

The project was sponsored by the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, via the Port Phillip Bay Fund.

We thank the Yarra Riverkeeper Association and Dolphin Research Institute for partnering with us on this project.