Mitigating The Marine Mess

Australian non-profit Tangaroa Blue Foundation is one organisation whose members are not afraid to get their hands dirty in the fight to clean up our oceans

- Heidi Tait, Cofounder of Tangaroa Blue Foundation

The Tangaroa Blue Foundation is an Australia-wide not-for-profit organisation dedicated to the removal and prevention of marine debris. The organisation was founded in 2004 in the South West region of Western Australia and has since developed into a national non-governmental organisation (NGO). What sets this organisation apart is not only their dedication to the removal of marine debris from the environment but their strategic methods of preventing it from entering our waterways in the first place. This is being achieved through the Australian Marine Debris Initiative (AMDI) and the contribution of over 1,100 AMDI partners nationally to an online database of marine debris.

For Heidi Tait, Cofounder and CEO of Tangaroa Blue Foundation, it was the 20 years she spent as a scuba diving instructor that resulted in her passion for the oceans and their protection.

It can feel overwhelming to know that up to 40,000 pieces of plastic are estimated to float in every square kilometre of the ocean, and that over 800 species worldwide are impacted by marine debris.

As divers, this issue is impacting the ecosystems we so love to explore, and to be able to preserve these environments requires action at all levels, from everyday consumers to manufacturers, to policymakers.

Although marine debris is one of the major environmental issues worldwide, it is also one of the easiest to solve – if we are committed. Tangaroa Blue Foundation believes there are three tiers to tackle this problem, and the good news is that we can be involved in each of them.