DURING the recent campaign to stop recreational fishing lockouts in Sydney, many fishos complained not enough was being done to tackle more serious threats to the marine environment, such as pollution from urban run-off and sewage. Well, here’s a chance to have your say if you’re in the Sydney, Coffs Harbour or Nowra areas.
The NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) is carrying out research with people who use our marine environment. The EPA wants to understand how people act and think about marine debris/litter in those environments, and want to understand what people think are the key issues. The research will inform the EPA’s litter prevention program, and the NSW Government’s development of a state-wide marine litter/debris education campaign. This was signalled in the Marine Estate Management Authority’s strategy released in August 2018.
The EPA wants to:
– Understand how stakeholders interact with the marine environment
– Understand the issues that stakeholders identify with litter in NSW marine waterways
– Understand stakeholder views about how marine debris/litter impacts the marine environment in NSW
– Identify hotspots for marine litter
– Understand how a marine litter/debris campaign could impact on the problem
It acknowledges many groups are already working in community or industry education and wants to make sure it hears from those involved in those programs.
The EPA will be holding group discussions:
– in Sydney on Tuesday, November 27 at 10 am (the forum will be held in Central Sydney at a location close to transport)
– in Nowra on December 5, 2018
– in Coffs Harbour on December 7, 2018
If you’re interested, confirm your attendance and which session you would like to attend by 16 Nov to Elissa Bishop, Project Officer elissa.bishop@epa.nsw.gov.au