Clean-Up Australia And Save The Reef

Locals are invited to participate in the annual Clean-up Australia Day this Sunday as many community groups and businesses offer a variety of ways we can all get involved in collecting rubbish from parks, roadsides, beaches and even the ocean.

One local business which is at the forefront of the event this year has decided to unite its clean-up activities with an educational experience planting more coral fragments on endangered areas of the reef.

Aqua5’s dive instructor, Ben Corbishley, has been working with Nathan Cook from Reef Ecologic for some time and together they decided to leverage the day to offer a cost-price tour that incorporates a beach, sea and dive clean-up with the opportunity to re-plant coral.

“It’s good to get to tie the two initiatives together,” said Aqua5 owner Paul Battaglia.

“We want to get the local community involved a bit more and thought this would be a great way to do it.”

The tour will head out to the Whitsunday Islands and all passengers can help collect litter from several locations on the day.

They will then be guided by Reef Ecologic marine biologists on how to plant live coral on discs and tag them so they can be monitored monthly.

Guests can then snorkel above the coral gardens.

A nominal fee of $90 is charged for the trip with snorkel gear and stinger suit provided. Food and drinks are to be brought onboard by guests who can use the esky supplied.

Clean Up Australia Day is held every year on the first Sunday in March.

The event was founded in 1990 when one man, who was so shocked about the pollution and rubbish he saw, decided to get a group of friends together for a clean-up day.

Now in its 32nd year, the event has become part of Australian culture with over 19 million people participating so far.

The Aqua5 vessel visits endangered areas of the reef

Coral fragments are replanted

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